Netflix to open video game studio in Helsinki, Finland
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Loading... - Valentina Bianco
- 17 Oct 2022
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Netflix is starting a gaming studio in Helsinki as the next step in establishing its presence in the video game industry. This is a first for the streaming giant, which had previously bought up three other studios to make mobile games and hired executives from notable gaming companies.
The in-house games studio will be led by Marko Lastikka, a former executive at Zynga and Electronic Arts. Lastikka most recently worked at Zynga’s Helsinki branch on the Farmville franchise.
Netflix said it chose Helsinki because of its proximity to other gaming talent, such as Next Games, a Finnish studio it acquired earlier this year, which makes titles like “Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales.”
“The Helsinki game industry is in many ways a ‘mobile first’ game industry, led by companies like Rovio and Supercell,” said Laine Nooney, New York University assistant professor and gaming historian. “This makes sense when you consider the outsize significance the Finnish company Nokia played at the dawn of the mobile phone industry. The popular game ‘Snake’ came preloaded on Nokia mobile phones starting in the late 1990s and is widely regarded as one of the first mobile phone games.” Read More...
