On a scale of one to ten, we may have to rate this an eleven. Netflix recently announced a new Stranger Things game at their E3 Coliseum panel just this Wednesday. The game will be the third official mobile game of the series following Stranger Things 3: The Game.
Fans have a lot to look forward to: Stranger Things 3 – along with the newest season of the show – will drop on July 4 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
(You’d think a game called Stranger Things 3 would be the third game in the line. Nonetheless, this series has never been one for the conventional.)
According to Chris Le, Netflix director of interactive games, the game combines location-based RPG mechanics with an “80s retro, Saturday-morning-cartoon style.” From this, fans speculate that it will have some elements of Pokemon Go to it.
The game will be developed by Next Games, a Helsinki-based company founded by former Rovio, Supercell, and Disney employees. The Icelandic game developers have already expressed their excitement in working with Netflix. Here’s what Next Games CEO Teemu Huuhtanen had to say in a press release:
We are huge fans of Stranger Things and thrilled to work together with Netflix to bring our shared vision of Stranger Things into life in a mobile game format. Our core focus will be to deliver on Stranger Things’ rich and intense themes like friendship and supernatural adventure, and translate these into snack-sized entertainment on your mobile device.
So, what does this mean?
This is a momentary point in history. With this being Netflix’s first appearance at E3, the streaming service has officially begun paving a path towards a Netflix-dominated video game industry. The idea isn’t too far fetched- with 148.6 million paying subscribers to their streaming services, they’re well into their take over of the film and TV realm.
There’s no doubting that Netflix has a near-monopoly in the streaming industry. Their 15.7 billion dollar revenue puts rivals like Hulu and HBO Now to shame. The company may be new to gaming, but this doesn’t mean they won’t go hard.
Along with Stranger Things 3, Netflix set the release of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics for later this summer. With how the company operates, they’re bound to pump out a lot more content soon.
The third Stranger Things mobile game will release in 2020 for both Android and iOS platforms. As of now, the game’s official name has not been disclosed.
