Streaming service Netflix has reportedly discussed plans to make its own Grand Theft Auto game by licensing the IP from the franchise's publisher, Take-Two Interactive. Over the years, Netflix has been dabbling with the gaming space, although largely via mobile titles based on its own series, such as Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Wednesday.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix is looking to move into higher-end games that can be streamed from TVs or PCs, with spin-offs for the Chris Hemsworth-led action movie series Extraction being discussed. This could position it against similar apps, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming, which launched for specific Samsung smart TV models built after 2020 and granted access to Game Pass titles without needing a console.

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A GTA Title Could Be A Major Win For Netflix Gaming

The Wall Street Journal's report suggests that Netflix is also looking to acquire major gaming titles such as Grand Theft Auto to increase its gaming catalog, mirroring how the company built its streaming service by acquiring the rights to popular series such as Friends, The Office, and Breaking Bad from other studios to provide a steady income of subscriptions in the early days to finance its original shows such as House of Cards, Narcos, and Orange is the New Black.

If Netflix's licensing deal with Take-Two were successful, acquiring the rights to an entirely new title in such a juggernaut gaming franchise as Grand Theft Auto would be a huge win for Netflix and could finally put Netflix Gaming on the map after years of the division largely being overlooked by general audiences. The last entry in the GTA franchise, GTA 5 became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning $800 million in its first day and $1 billion in its first three days.

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What Could Netflix's GTA Game Be Like?

With the title running via cloud gaming and streaming, it's unlikely that Netflix's GTA title will come close to the scale of the upcoming GTA 6, which is rumored to be developer Rockstar Games' most ambitious title to date, running on a completely new and powerful version of its in-house RAGE engine. GTA 6 has also had an exceptionally long development window to accomplish this, with no confirmed release date in sight. It is possible, however, that the title could build from the long-running series' smaller entries.

With Netflix Gaming currently on mobile devices, it's worth noting that GTA has appeared on handheld devices in the past. Chinatown Wars returned to GTA's top-down roots on Nintendo DS and PSP; however, Netflix will likely want a title more in line with the 3D open-world games the series is now known for. Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories brought the locations of GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City to the PSP, and the GTA Trilogy, which consisted of GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas, were already ported to mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch.

Regardless of what kind of GTA title Netflix chooses to develop, the fact that the streaming giant is seeking out such major gaming IPs indicates that it is serious about its venture into the gaming space. Currently, other titles based on non-Netflix IPs, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, can be purchased or downloaded for free through other platforms, making it less of a draw for videogame enthusiasts to subscribe to Netflix just to access its games, but an exclusive Grand Theft Auto game on the service could be the first step toward changing this.

Source: Wall Street Journal