Netflix is launching its own video games studio.
The streaming giant is planning to create a mark on the video game industry through setting up a Helskini-based project, which will be helmed by Marko Lastikka, an alum of Zynga and Electronic Arts.
This move comes after the entertainment company acquired many smaller gaming companies such as Night School Studio, who made Oxenfree.
In a blog post, Amir Rahimi, the vice president of Game Studios wrote it they had a “vision to build a world-class games studio.”
He added: "[It] will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games, with no ads and no in-app purchases."
In April, Netflix shared they had experienced a loss of 200 000 subscribers, marking its first quarterly loss since 2011. Following this, their share price dropped by 35 percent, taking more than $50 billion from their market value.
Between April and July this year, they reported a loss of nearly a million users, the largest reduction in their history, leaving them with 220 million users worldwide.
The move into video games is yet unclear if it just for mobile devices or if they intend to move into consoles.
Annakaisa Kultima, a Helsinki-based gaming researcher believes Netflix’s recent purchase of Next Games - also based in the Finnish capital and helped them create a game based on their Orignal hit ‘Stranger Things’- was a contributing factor in where they chose to develop their new business venture.
She told BBC News: “They know how Helsinki works and the development culture works in Finland.
"There are hundreds of games published on a daily basis on the app stores, so in order to really make it there, you have to have the critical knowledge of how to make it happen.
"We have the reputation of doing pretty well for the past decade or two in the game industry, but games are not labelled where they were made.
"From that perspective, I think that's the reason, they know that talent is based in Finland - [Clash of Clans developer] Supercell is in Helsinki in the city centre, and [Angry Birds developer] Rovio Entertainment and [Control developer] Remedy Entertainment are in Espoo, which borders the city."
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