Netflix games on your TV, PC or Mac? Get set to be blown away by the big screen experience

Good news for gamers! Netflix is expanding its gaming experience to the big screen. The company has recently announced that it has started limited beta testing, in select regions, of a new feature that will allow all users to play games through Netflix no matter which device they use. This means you will be able to play games on TV, PC, and Mac. So far, users could only play Netflix games on their Android and iOS devices, and only after they installed the game from the app marketplace. However, this new feature will directly cloud stream the games from Netflix servers to the device of the user.

Netflix said in a blog post, “We are rolling out a limited beta test to a small number of members in Canada and the UK on select TVs starting today, and on PCs and Macs through Netflix.com on supported browsers in the next few weeks”. This is the first time Netflix is entering the video game streaming space, despite being in the gaming space since 2021.

Netflix tests new gaming feature

In November 2021, Netflix launched its mobile gaming offering as a free perk for subscribing to the platform. The company created a number of games on Android and iOS that could only be downloaded if the user had a Netflix account. The new package is a massive upgrade on that because it not only allows users a wide choice of devices to play games, but with the cloud streaming model, it is likely that it can also offer multiplayer gaming as well.

For now, the platform is beginning limited beta testing with two game titles — Oxenfree from Night School Studio, a Netflix Game Studio, and Molehew’s Mining Adventure, a gem-mining arcade game.

And if you’re wondering just how can people game on TV without a controller, Netflix has a solution for that too. “To play our games on TV, we're introducing a controller that we already have in our hands most of the day — our phones. Members on PCs and Macs can play on Netflix.com with a keyboard and mouse,” explained the blog post. Essentially, users will be able to download a game controller app or something similar which will allow the smartphone to be used as the controller.

Games on TV will operate on select devices from Netflix’s initial partners including Amazon Fire TV Streaming Media Players, Chromecast with Google TV, LG TVs, Nvidia Shield TV, Roku devices and TVs, Samsung Smart TVs, and Walmart ONN. Additional devices will be added on an ongoing basis, the company stated.