Netflix acquires gaming avatar maker Ready Player Me

After shifting its gaming strategy to absorption much connected games played connected the TV, Netflix announced it’s acquiring Ready Player Me, an avatar instauration level based successful Estonia. The streamer said Friday it plans to usage the startup’s improvement tools and infrastructure to physique avatars that volition let Netflix subscribers to transportation their personas and fandom crossed antithetic games.

Terms of the woody were not disclosed; Ready Player Me had raised $72 cardinal in task backing from investors including a16z, Endeavor, Konvoy Ventures, Plural, and assorted angels, including the co-founders of companies similar Roblox, Twitch, and King Games.

Netflix told TechCrunch the startup’s squad of astir 20 radical volition beryllium joining the company, including the founders Rainer Selvet, Haver Jarveoja, Kaspar Tiri, and Timmu Toke. It doesn’t person an estimation of however agelong it volition beryllium until avatars launch. Nor does it item which games oregon types of games volition beryllium archetypal to get avatars.

Following the acquisition, Ready Player Me volition beryllium winding down its services connected January 31, 2026, including its online avatar instauration tool, PlayerZero.

Image Credits:Ready Player Me

“Our imaginativeness has ever been to alteration avatars and identities to question crossed galore games and virtual worlds,” Ready Player Me CEO Timmu Toke said successful a statement. “We’ve been connected an autarkic way to marque that imaginativeness a world for a agelong time. I’m present precise excited for the Ready Player Me squad to join Netflix to standard our tech and expertise to a planetary assemblage and lend to the breathtaking vision Netflix has for gaming.”

Netflix’s gaming shift

Netflix’s woody represents the company’s changing attack to games.

When it moved into the marketplace 4 years ago, the institution offered mobile games to its subscribers, who would log successful utilizing their Netflix accounts. At the time, Netflix explained that it saw gaming arsenic different caller category, akin to its different expansions into archetypal films, animation, and unscripted TV.

Image Credits:Netflix

Netflix acquired galore gaming studios and titles, and licensed others, nether the enactment of Mike Verdu, the company’s VP of games who formerly worked astatine EA and Kabam. That strategy saw mixed results. While immoderate of its larger, much well-known titles whitethorn person attracted immoderate customers, similar GTA: San Andreas, others were virtually unknown. (The institution precocious said the GTA crippled was connected its mode out, too, alongside dozens of different titles.)

Netflix also shut down many of its workplace acquisitions oregon returned them to their founders.

To immoderate extent, these changes could person been anticipated. Going into this, Netflix knew that moving into gaming would beryllium an experiment, and it would person to accommodate arsenic it discovered what worked and what didn’t.

As portion of its strategy shift, Netflix last twelvemonth brought in a caller executive, Alain Tascan, formerly of Epic Games, arsenic its President of Games. Verdu, who was past VP of generative AI for games, left 7 months later.

Under Tascan, Netflix has expanded its gaming lineup for TV and begun focusing connected enactment games, kids’ games, communicative games, and much mainstream titles.

Recently, the streamer released a slate of enactment games for TVs and mobile, including Netflix Puzzled, PAW Patrol Academy, positive WWE2K25, Red Dead Redemption, and Best Guess, a unrecorded enactment game with hosts Hunter March and Howie Mandel, and a $1 cardinal jackpot. This week, it besides announced a caller FIFA title would beryllium coming to TVs successful clip for the World Cup successful 2026.

At TechCrunch Disrupt’s lawsuit this October, Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone said the institution was introducing interactive real-time voting for unrecorded content, which it was already investigating with a unrecorded cooking amusement and would soon bring to its reboot of the endowment amusement “Star Search.”

In this way, Netflix is present much intimately pursuing however the TV manufacture embraced mobile, interactive experiences by allowing assemblage voting for “American Idol” contestants oregon favourite couples connected world shows similar “Love Island.”

Whether oregon not Netflix tin person its assemblage to deliberation of its marque — traditionally associated with passive, lean-back viewing — arsenic thing to crook to for interactive activities similar gaming, inactive remains to beryllium seen.