Netflix’s Games Are Getting More Social

Netflix has started testing “game handles” in some of its titles.

The company has steadily increased its commitment to the mobile gaming market over the last year. It started by releasing a few Stranger Things tie-ins in August 2021, then started adding more titles, and then started acquiring development studios devoted to mobile games.

Now it’s reportedly preparing to make some improvements to the game platform itself. Steve Moser says(Opens in a new window) he discovered references to the feature in Netflix’s mobile app. The company reportedly describes a “game handle” as “a unique public name for playing games on Netflix.”

But it turns out Netflix has been testing these gaming-specific usernames for a while. TechCrunch reports(Opens in a new window) that Netflix introduced game handles in one title, Into the Breach, on July 19. The experiment has since expanded to Bowling Ballers, Mahjong Solitaire, and Heads Up!

It doesn’t make sense to introduce game handles on their own, however, and Moser says that information from Netflix’s mobile app suggests it plans to use these public-facing monikers “for multiplayer game invites and on leaderboards” across its growing catalog of mobile titles.

“We are always looking to improve our member’s experience on the service and are exploring different features to enrich the Netflix mobile games experience,” a Netflix spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We don’t have anything else to share at this time.”