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Utomik confident that Netflix for games is a viable business model

Utomik confident that Netflix for games is a viable business model

Game subscription service Utomik is confident that its Netflix-style streaming model is a viable business model for the medium.

The company launched its subscription service earlier this month following a two year open-beta period. The start-up frequently cites the TV giant and Spotify as influential in developing its games-on-demand platform.

The wild success of these services has had many wondering when the model might come to games, but so far none have matched that level of break-out success.

The PC market is dominated by less than a handful of larger stores, with thousands of choices essentially giving on-demand access to games in a way that doesn’t map to television.

Frank Meijer, PR manager at Utomik, filled us in on how the start=up sees its particular model working within the games space.

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“A subscription model like ours, where we curate the games we release on our platform, gives people with busy lives the ease of use that you don't get on a storefront where you're paralyzed by the number of choices available and will have a hard time staying up-to-date with the latest releases,” he told PCGamesInsider.biz.

“The same way a lot of people just watch a show on Netflix because it's recommended for them, that's how we see our model work in the gaming space.”

Another side to consider is the question of ownership in digital media, as online stores tend to sell licenses to games, not products. Many have concerns what this means for their growing Steam catalogues.

Utomik, however, sees potential for their platform in the growing digitalisation of media.

“We're still very confident this model works in the gaming industry as well," said Meijer.

"You do consume games in a completely different way than you do series, movies, and music, but in the end, it's all down to physical versus digital and the question of ownership.

"As with TV and music, the move away from physical has been going on for many years already in the gaming space and people are slowly getting more okay with not owning everything.”


Staff Writer

Natalie Clayton is an Edinburgh-based freelance writer and game developer. Besides PCGamesInsider and Pocketgamer.biz, she's written across the games media landscape and was named in the 2018 GamesIndustry.biz 100 Rising Star list.