Netflix is reportedly considering introducing in-app purchases and in-app ads to its games in a bid to better monetise its games service.
According to Wall Street Journal (£), Netflix executives have had “discussions” about how to generate money from its games beyond subscription revenue, including microtransactions and ads, both of which the streaming giant has avoided up until now.
It appears Netflix would only serve advertisements to ad-supported subscribers, but is also considering offering “sophisticated” games for additional cost on top of the subscription fee.
Up until now, Netflix had proudly positioned itself alongside Apple Arcade as a games platform that shunned ads and in-app purchases.
The WSJ did stress that right now these are only internal discussions and are by no means indicative that Netflix will indeed make these changes. It does, however, say that the discussions took place in “recent months”, and cites that the news was leaked by “people familiar with the discussions”.
Netflix head of gaming Mike Verdu recently revealed the company has more than 10 games in development at its in-house studios, including a Squid Game game.