Dragon’s Dogma spinoff coming to Netflix; Dark Arisen coming to Nintendo Switch

Dragon's Dogma is coming to Netflix and the Nintendo Switch. Netflix will be creaing an original series based on the game.

The new action RPG Dragon’s Dogma will be adopted by Netflix and will be entwined with a whole new series based off the franchise. The RPG has been a cult classic following with its combat and huge worlds. The game has been released and released on current and older generation consoles, and it’ll likely be … Read more

Activision Blizzard fires CFO Spencer Neumann; Netflix picks him up

Activision Blizzard fires CFO Spencer Neumann; Netflix picks him up 1

Activision Blizzard has fired their Chief Financial Officer, Spencer Neumann. It’s been a rough year for the company with their stock tanking since October. Yahoo reports that Neumann’s release is The company is the force behind some major releases such as World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, Destiny 2: Forsaken, Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, and Spyro Reignited Trilogy. … Read more

Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode debut delayed on Netflix

Telltale's Minecraft: Story Mode debut delayed on Netflix 2

Minecraft: Story Mode was supposed to debut on Netflix a few days ago on November 7- but it (still) hasn’t.

The show is an interactive show aimed at younger audiences on Netflix. Viewers could tag along with the adventure and make decisions that affect the outcome of the story- just like the video game. It’s pretty much an interactive TV show of the video game released by Telltale Games, which has shut down since the announcement.

Without going into too much detail, Telltale Games wasn’t getting enough sales from its story-driven, decision-based games and had to dissolve itself. It was working on a final project (The Walking Dead: The Final Season) but only completed Seasons 1 and 2. Another company then picked up the rights to the game and hired the original team to complete the project.

As for Telltale, they had a skeletal staff on board which has now been fired as well. Telltale is no more.

Minecraft: Story Mode was one of the very last things the company released. However, the show didn’t debut on time and there’s been no word on when it’ll be coming out. Netflix currently shows that it’s still “Coming Soon” on their own page with no other details at this time. We’ll update you with any news.

Castlevania Season 3 confirmed; Greenlit by Netflix

Castlevania Season 3 confirmed; Greenlit by Netflix 3

Castlevania Season 3 has been greenlit by Netflix and now is in production based on a tweet by producer Adi Shankar, who just posted the news right on Halloween.

He thanked a few people who helped sway the decision to create the next animated series for Netflix’s streaming program.

Castlevania is one of the rare and few pieces of media based completely on a video game that’s been adopted by mainstream streaming services. The series first premiered on Netflix on July 7, 2017. Season 2 then debuted on October 26, 2018. And Season 3 is now confirmed and in production. Season 1 was the shortest with only four episodes since it was a “pilot” season, with the next season doubled in episodes. Season 3 will have ten videos planned.

Shankar has been a producer for shorts like The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, Venom: Truth in Journalism, James Bond: In Service of Nothing, and Dredd (2012).

He’s working with Warren Ellis, who wrote all 12 episodes of Castlevania and worked on animated series for comic characters like Iron Man, x-men, Blade, and Wolverine. Sam Deats, the director for Castlevania, has found his breakout work in this very series.

Powerhouse Animation is working alongside them and has produced shorts such as Darksiders 2, Starhawk, Epic Micky 2, Red Vs. Blue, and various other animated episodes.

Castlevania Seasons 1 and 2 are available right now on Netflix. Season 3 has now been greenlit and will be hitting your streaming device of choice soon enough.

Source: Adi Shankar

Netflix may have hit its saturation point

Netflix may have hit its saturation point 4

Netflix didn’t make its subscriber growth targets in the three months ending in June. It missed by about a million subscribers, which scared off some investors. There are rumors that the streaming giant may have finally hit a saturation point, where it strikes a balance between subscribers subscribing and subscribers leaving. In other words, Netflix has reached all the interested audiences available and there aren’t enough people to make any significant growth for the platform overall.

Following this missed target, the stock dropped a huge 14% as reported by the BBC. This came after an impressive run that the stock was gaining over the past year.

Currently, the giant as 130M subscribers globally and projected 6.2M, but only hit about 5.2M instead. The streaming service is expected to face even more competition in the coming year. HBO Chief Executive John Stankey told his employees that the company needs to move away from prestige-programming and focus on Netflix’s high-content volume strategy. Apple also plans to launch a competing streaming service that’s in direct competition with Netflix. Disney, which currently dominates Hollywood’s landscape in properties like Marvel and Star Wars and brands with high-value will launch its own streaming platform following Netflix.

Netflix currently accounts for 8% of TV viewing overall, but it’s nothing to consider a dominant force. It’s been an investor darling in the past and many who thought it would take over TV, but that’s not the case. Netflix is often thought of as the service that’ll take over cable, but the landscape is looking for something like the old cable model in a custom built your own package. Subscribe to your channels and pay a fee. It’s not possible to bundle all of it into a service and sell it for $15/mo like Netflix.

CEO Reed Hastings told investors that they can expect good news regarding frequency and length of viewing sessions. CNBC suggests that subscribers watch an average of 10 hours per week and traditional viewers watch 20 hours, with cable being the top dog.

Netflix will spend up to $8 producing TV shows and films this year. Several series are yet to be announced, but some include Disenchantment, House of Cards, and Making a Murderer.

Netflix getting rid of user reviews – permanently

Netflix getting rid of user reviews - permanently 5

User-written reviews on streaming giant Netflix will soon dissipate into thin air. Based on a report from CNET, Netflix has plans to completely remove user-generated reviews from its platform this summer. It’ll take place in a few different phases- by July 30, writing reviews for shows and movies will be halted. In August, existing reviews will be completely wiped from the servers.

Netflix stated that the reviews had “declining usage over time” and therefore have become obsolete. Therefore, they’ve decided to remove the written reviews and stick with the thumbs up/down system. It’s also been reported that they’ve notified any user who has used the feature recently.

The ability to write and read user reviews have been already limited to the desktop version of Netflix. They don’t show up in any of Netflix’s apps across any platform, but the rating system is still intact on both the desktop and apps.

Previously, they used a star rating system which was replaced with a thumbs voting system. They claim that it’s easier to use the thumb system and it’s more accurate for personal recommendations of shows and movies, which may increase user engagement. A report from Variety says that the company saw a whopping 200% increase in ratings when they switched to the thumb rating system.

Netflix has also been testing a new subscription tier in Europe. It’s called Ultra and it allows an account to watch Ultra HD content for just about $20 USD.

Telltale making Stranger Things game; Netflix streaming Minecraft: Story Mode

Telltale making Stranger Things game; Netflix streaming Minecraft: Story Mode 6

Telltale is making a Stranger Things game.

The deal was confirmed between Netflix and Telltale to bring a new adaptation of the company’s previous Minecraft: Story Mode adventure game to the streaming giant. A separate deal then followed which will have Telltale make a Stranger Things videogame which will be published on PC and consoles. It’ll be the second Stranger Things entry after the mobile action-adventure game was developed by BonusXP.

Netflix reached out to TechRadar and confirmed the rumor to which then telltale posted about it on their official Twitter account.

They then went on to talk about the new partnership with Netflix and that they’re “thrilled” to confirm it. There may be other details following with their new partnership.

The game itself will likely be an episodic adventure along the lines of Game of Thrones or The Wolf Among Us. No release date has been given and neither what the game will focus on- story or otherwise.

As for the Minecraft: Story Mode adaptation, it’ll be similar to other interactive properties on Netflix such as Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. That’s about it for now. Stay tuned for updates.

Netflix on Nintendo Switch – is it finally happening?

Netflix will be coming to the Switch- but when?

In case you didn’t know, the Nintendo Switch still doesn’t have any Netflix support.

America’s favorite streaming provider is still “exploring the opportunity” to build an app for the Switch. Polygon reports this from a Netflix rep and confirms that they don’t have any confirmable plans at this time. It’s still in the air.

Netflix tweeted a tweet over the weekend that pretty much just restated what the rep announced. Their CS account, @netflixhelps, tweeted that “there are currently no plans for Netflix on Nintendo Switch.” The tweet has been removed since then.

The Switch currently only has support for Netflix’s major competitor- Hulu. Nintendo hasn’t said anything about the integration. Hulu continues to be the only streaming option on the Switch, which was launched without any streaming support.

According to various comments about the case, the Switch will get Netflix soon enough. The question is when. Many customers already have access to Netflix across many platforms, including older Nintendo consoles like the Wii and Wii U. It should only be a matter of time before Switch users can start streaming their favorite shows and movies on Nintendo’s newest console.