Netflix Wanted to Add GTA to Its Games Library

Netflix has built its games library significantly since first adding video games to its content offering two years ago and at one point even tried getting Grand Theft Auto on the service.

The revelation comes via The Wall Street Journal, which recently published an exposé into the company’s gaming efforts. GTA would no doubt be a huge boon for the Netflix library given its position as one of the crown jewels of gaming. And the prospect aligns with how the company has built its profile so far.

As with its film and series production, Netflix has laid the groundwork by releasing some in-house content based on its owned IP, such as Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3: The Game, which launched on the service in November 2021. It has since added more first-party games, including Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, and third-party games, such as Storyteller from Annapurna Interactive, Terra Nil from Devolver Digital, and Valiant Hearts: Coming Home from Ubisoft.

Despite that, Netflix is yet to really convince its subscribers to tap into its games. According to the report, those games have only been downloaded a total of 70.5 million times, off the back of 238 million subscribers. On top of that, only half the time that subscribers tap the ‘Get Game’ button do they go on to play it.

There’s no guarantee that a titan like GTA would do anything to shift the way that gamers engage with Netflix, but it could certainly act as a Trojan Horse. While there’s no guarantee of that actually happening (and Rockstar has recently added full games to its own GTA+ subscription service), it’s an indication of how serious Netflix is about gaming.

Already, it’s estimated that the company has spent more than $1 billion in trying to crack the industry. It’s currently working on its first full-fledged AAA game, with Halo veteran Joseph Staten joining as creative director on the project earlier this year.