Over the past year, Netflix has been building up Netflix Games, a new part of the streaming service that offers games. So far, Netflix has been acquiring independent studios to help build up its library. Now, the company is investing even further by setting up its own in-house development studio from scratch. 

Building a games studio from the ground up is no easy task. In this case, Netflix Games will be based in Helsinki, Finland, and will aim to deliver “world class” games without any form of in-app purchases. Former EA and Zynga executive, Marko Lastikka, will oversee the studio.

Netflix chose Helsinki as the city has become a bit of a developer hub. Companies like Next Games (now owned by Netflix), Epic Games and WarGaming have offices there, and there are a number of other independent studios nearby too.

Of course, starting a studio is just the beginning. Next, they need to hire a team and begin prototyping ideas for games. With that in mind, it will be years before we see the first project to come out of this studio.

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KitGuru Says: While Netflix throws around phrases like ‘world class', it is still targeting games with casual gameplay, rather than anything on the scale of a AAA game. The types of titles we see on Netflix are going to be quite different to what console and PC gamers expect. 

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