Netflix will be removing all of its interactive titles: “The technology served its purpose”
After producing various gems that thrive on audience interaction, Netflix has announced its plans to remove any titles that feature interactive sections.
When starting out, Netflix has 24 different titles that feature interactive content, but starting on December 1st, 2024, only four of them will remain, including the offshoot of Black Mirror entitled Bandersnatch as well as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend.
The streaming service first started working on interactive material in 2017 following the release of Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale. While most of the biggest interactive features evolved into various trivia games available alongside certain titles, the lack of any new twists on the genre suggests that the work on them didn’t register with fans.
While there had been no confirmation that the titles would be removed, gaming boss Mike Verdu had said that there had been no push for the streaming service to use any more interactive titles any longer. It has since been announced that Verdu will be working as the vice president of GenAI for Games.
In a statement released by spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher, Netflix has decided that while the technology was a nice experiment, it was time for them to move on with different approaches to content, saying, “The technology served its purpose, but is now limiting as we focus on technological efforts in other areas.”
Out of all the interactive titles available on Netflix, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has remained one of the most popular on the site. Following the story of gaming programmer Stefan Butler, the audience is given the choice to make different decisions for him throughout the show, with the story playing out different scenarios based on how the story played out.
While the film was praised in its time for being a bold new innovation for the site, it was also met with a degree of criticism regarding the audience’s involvement. Although fans were given the choice to decide what Butler’s fate would be throughout the story, there were many questioning whether or not their decisions would have any substantial effects on the story had they not been able to make decisions at all.
This also follows Netflix shutting down their gaming studio AAA before they had even released any games for it. While the streaming service has expanded its game streaming beta to the US in 2023, it is still in its testing stages.