Netflix is expanding its gaming push from primarily solo mobile adventures to communal experiences around the television set, beginning with a host of titled geared towards party gaming around the holiday season.
Currently the games available via TV sets are mostly focused around single player experiences, but that’s changing in line with the company’s priorities. The expansion of Netflix Games begins with five titles that are designed to get everyone involved, and could be a nice change to the usual broad discussion over what to watch via the streaming service on a Friday night.
Netflix says gamers will be able to use a phone as a controller, and it has a dedicated controller app, so there’ll be no need to connect a dedicated Bluetooth gaming pad to the smart TV.
The initial five co-op multiplayer games carry some familiar household names like Lego, Boggle, Tetris and Pictionary, centred around the party experience. They were announced in a blog post and are as follows:
- LEGO Party! – Square off against your friends in the ultimate LEGO party game. Compete in hilarious minigames and hunt for gold through themed Challenge Zones.
- Boggle Party – Race against the clock to find words (the longer, the better) in a jumbled-up letter grid. Play solo or make it a party with up to eight players.
- Pictionary: Game Night – Draw ’til you drop — or one of your friends guesses what you’re sketching — in this hilarious and fast-paced spin on Mattel’s classic group game.
- Tetris Time Warp – Time-travel with friends to different eras of Tetris, from the 1984 original to the classic Gameboy version. Can you warp your way to a top score?
- Party Crashers: Fool Your Friends – One person at this party secretly has no idea what everyone else is talking about. Figure out whose clues are fishy to unmask the crasher.
Netflix hasn’t said exactly when the titles will be available to play, but with Thanksgiving just around the corner in the United States, we expect to see them pop up within the games tab soon.
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