Netflix’s boss for gaming division believes consoles are not the future

It’s been a few years since Netflix entered the gaming industry and now, its newest head of the gaming division, ‘Alain Tascan’, says that consoles aren’t the future. Instead, Tascan believes in having games that can be played anywhere without the hassle of downloads and expensive hardware.

Tascan was all about making games more accessible, an arad where he believes consoles may lag in coming years. Instead, they are focusing on making games that can utilize TVs and mobile devices and eliminate the ‘friction’ in entertainment to reach a wider audience. He told this during an interview with The Game Business.

Netflix aims to make gaming more accessible 

Tascan boasts over 30 years of experience in the gaming industry with big names like Electronic Arts. With the company’s recent focus on gaming, he was asked about their approach and Tascan said that he does not believe consoles are the way to go if they plan to reach the ‘broadest possible audience’. Unsteady, he plans on taking the Wii-style approach.

“I love the Wii. And if you look at the games I worked on while at EA, there was a lot of Wii. I am very vigorous about lowering friction and eliminating it if we can. I see that the subscription is friction as well,” Tascan said talking about making games accessible.

“The other friction is having enough controllers for family. Having a piece of hardware that might be expensive, that’s another friction. Waiting for a game to download, that’s another friction. I am [looking at] all the obstacles, and asking if we can reduce them as much as possible,” he added.

Also Read:Netflix shuts down its AAA game development studio ‘Team Blue’

Is cloud gaming the future of game industry?

Video games have mostly been enjoyed on local hardware, be it console or PC and that remains true to this day. However, recent years have seen a rise in video game streaming, i.e. cloud gaming. While cloud gaming does have its issues, it can provide a decent amount of entertainment, although Netflix’s approach may take some time as multiplayer games still lag behind a lot.

Does this mean consoles will become obsolete, likely not as they seem as popular as ever with PS5 racking to the top. Netflix is aiming more toward party-style/casual games people can play with family with devices that are readily available.