Netflix Inc will release its first original horror video game on June 30, as it looks to court gamers with a tried-and-true genre.
In Unhinged, players use their phones as controllers to shine a flashlight and interact with objects on the screen. The game, which takes just over half an hour to complete, is set in an abandoned apartment during a hurricane. The cast includes Zoe Kravitz, prolific voice actor Troy Baker, and Sadie Sink, from the Netflix hit Stranger Things.
Sean Krankel, Netflix’s head of narrative games, said the "barrier to entry” for Unhinged is low but it can "still deliver on high emotions.” The goal is for customers to discover it on their home page, get hooked, play it to completion and then seek out more Netflix games. He expects additional horror and narrative titles to come to the service in the future.
"For this we thought, ‘How can we get people who are showing up to Netflix to watch a show or a movie and drag them closer to interactivity?’” Krankel said in an interview.
The new game is the latest move by Netflix to keep customers engaged as it competes for attention with everything from rival video-on-demand services to podcasts to social media. Netflix began offering video games in 2021 but has struggled to get many customers to engage. Two years ago, Netflix’s gaming division hired a new leader, Alain Tascan – a veteran video-game executive, who most recently came from Epic Games Inc, the studio behind Fortnite.
Under Tascan, Netflix has been working to figure out which genres perform best on the service. It has invested in family-friendly games like Boggle Party, which has shown signs of success. It has also purchased gaming studios, one of which – Night School – was co-founded by Krankel.
If things go right for Netflix, Unhinged could draft off the recent breakout success of horror-movie sensations Backrooms and Obsession, which have proven to be big draws for cinemas, particularly with young audiences.
For Unhinged, the goals are moderate. Krankel wouldn’t say how many players Netflix would like to reach, but he noted that the completion rate is a critical metric. If people don’t finish a game that takes less than 45 minutes to play, the maker probably hasn’t done a great job.
"I’m so hopeful that this one gives us signals that this type of a bite-sized thing resonates,” Krankel said.
The developers behind Unhinged have been playing around with the concept for about two years, said director Sam Warner. Early ideas involved allowing players to choose character dialogue and roam freely through the game, he said. But they found that adding too many options slowed down the pace.
Last year, Warner and Night School released Thronglets, a trippy mobile game tied to Netflix’s Black Mirror show. The game was well reviewed but did not bring in huge audiences. Krankel said Netflix no longer plans to release mobile-only games. Instead, the company has moved toward titles like Unhinged that run on a television set and use the player’s phone as a controller.
Netflix would like for Unhinged to spike demand for other story-driven games on the app. The plan is to make games that are tied to other Netflix franchises as well as ones set in their own, original worlds, Krankel said.
"None of this stuff existed for this platform before we were working on it,” he said. "There’s a lot of under-the-hood work that we want to build on.” – Bloomberg
