Netflix’s aims for getting further into the game market involves adding Grand Theft Auto onto its game platform. According to the Wall Street Journal, a licensing deal with Rockstar will allow the streamer to release a title from the popular open-world crime series onto its titular service.
In recent months, Netflix has been acquiring studios and key creative talent in the hopes of making its own first-party games based on properties like Extraction and Black Mirror. It’s also now looking at licensing deals that’ll add well-known mobile games (like Classic Solitaire) to its catalog.
Exactly which GTA entry that would come to Netflix is presently unknown. Likewise, it’s unclear if this means Netflix would further be allowed to develop said game, or if the deal just lets it port over an older title. Both options are valid; Netflix Games has released games based on shows like Stranger Things in the past.
Either way, it would be a large get for Netflix, continuing the streamer’s ability to snag big game franchises like The Witcher and Devil May Cry, both of which are (or soon will be) shows on its platform. And if it’s timed to release around the time of Grand Theft Auto VI, it’ll be a win for both companies.
Beyond bringing more games to its platform, Netflix plans to increase its reach and make subscribers aware it actually has games. In August, it released a controller app for iOS users ahead of upcoming TV support for the game platform.
Rockstar previously brought a number of early GTA games (like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City) to iOS and Android during the early 2010s. It doesn’t seem to have left the phones behind, as mobile versions of Grand Theft Auto: The Definitive Trilogy are said to still be in the works.
Given its popularity over the past decade, and the revenue it continues to earn, it would be funny if the game in question was just Grand Theft Auto Online.