Netflix Wants Your Friday Night: Inside Its Push to Turn the TV Into a Game Console
The sun was still poking through Hollywood haze when the crowd filed into Netflix on Vine. No red carpet, no velvet rope vibe - just a room full of press, partners, and curious folks ready to see if Netflix could actually make games feel as simple as pressing play.
That's the pitch. And honestly, it's pretty clear what they want: you, your TV, your phone, and the Netflix app - open all night.
"As easy as streaming a movie"
Netflix Games president Alain Tascan set the tone right away. He told a standing-room crowd that the goal is simple: make playing a game feel like streaming a show on a Friday night. He called it a "golden ticket" - a chance to rethink how people play and reconnect with characters they already love.
It's a small but significant shift. Netflix isn't trying to replace consoles. They're trying to keep you inside Netflix, where you already spend hours, and let your phone do the job of a controller.
How it works (and why it's kind of clever)
Open Netflix on your TV. Scan a QR code with your phone. Boom - the phone becomes your controller. Jeet Shroff, vp of Netflix Games, framed it like a family plan: skip the dusty board game closet, keep everyone on the couch, and jump straight from a movie to a party game without leaving the app.
It's friction-light. And that's the point. Less setup, more time actually playing together.
What you can play right now
- Boggle Party
- LEGO Party
- Party Crashers: Fool Your Friends
- Pictionary: Game Night
- Tetris Time Warp
These are built for groups - quick, familiar, and easy to explain to a room. Up next: "Dead Man's Party: A Knives Out Game," where everyone playing is a suspect and Benoit Blanc (movies and tv series) leads the mystery. Yes, that Benoit Blanc.
The live moment that stole the room
Attendees got a first shot at "Best Guess Live," a weekday mobile game show hosted by Hunter March (movies and tv series) and Howie Mandel (movies and tv series). It looks built for momentum: five clues, 20 seconds each, race the clock (movies and tv series) and the crowd, real players, real-time, with cash on the line.
There was a twist. The "live from another location" bit ended with March and Mandel popping into the room after the game. It landed. People laughed, grabbed selfies, and you could see how Netflix wants these games to feel - immediate, communal, sticky.
No, they're not walking away from mobile
TV play might be the headline, but Netflix's mobile library is already 80 games deep with more coming. The "coming soon" list is built to draw in kids, WWE fans, and daily puzzle addicts alike.
- PAW Patrol Academy
- WWE 2K25: Netflix Edition (Roman Reigns, Trish Stratus, Undertaker, Rhea Ripley (movies and tv series))
- Netflix Puzzled (with "Stranger Things," "Squid Game," "KPop Demon Hunters," "Bridgerton," "Emily in Paris")
- Red Dead Redemption
Kids and families are a big part of this
Kids Games gm Lisa Burgess (movies and tv series) said "World of Peppa Pig" has been a top-10 title every single week since launch. Her point was simple: kids don't just want to watch; they want to jump into those worlds and stay there. Parents, meanwhile, like finding it all in one trusted place.
That's where "LEGO Duplo World" and other family-safe titles sit - easy to find, easy to share, and all under the Netflix umbrella.
Here's what this could mean
For Netflix, this is about habits. If the app becomes where you watch and play - with your phone as the controller and the TV as the hub - you're less likely to bounce to another platform. And for franchises, games are a fresh way to keep people connected between seasons and sequels.
But it's also a test. Will people actually play on TVs? Will families make space for trivia and party games after dinner the way they do for a new episode? Maybe it's timing, but the pitch fits how people already use Netflix: open it, pick something, pass the phone around, keep the night going.
The bottom line
Tascan's closer was blunt: they're not aiming at consoles; they're building a different path. Less hardware. More access. And a lot of IP you already know. If it works, Friday night at home gets easier - and Netflix becomes the place you don't turn off when the credits roll.
