Netflix launches a game controller app for playing games on your TV | TechCrunch
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After last fall signaling its intentions to expand into cloud gaming, Netflix today launched a new app that will soon allow subscribers to play games on their TV. The app, dubbed “Netflix Game Controller,” lets you use your phone as a controller after pairing it with your TV in order to play the games available […]
  • Rikudou_SageEnglish
    19•9 months ago

    Using your phone as a controller for your TV sounds extremely stupid.

    • Carighan MaconarEnglish
      14•9 months ago

      Honestly it depends on the game. If it’s a purely mouse-controlled game like a point&click, why not use the phone as a trackpad so you can game on the far larger screen?

      Sure it’s a bit silly, but even if we have controllers around the home few of us have trackpads like a Steam Controller, nevermind a whole lapboard.

      • NixEnglish
        4•9 months ago

        It would also work fine for 2D platformers

      • Rikudou_SageEnglish
        -1•9 months ago

        I still disagree. If you have to constantly look away from the screen to look at your controller, the experience is suboptimal.

        • @Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4•9 months ago

          Mobile gaming is usually organized so that you don’t have to look closely at the spot you’re touching; for instance, movement would involve pressing on any spot left of the middle of the screen, then dragging forward.

          If they get even more space because players are usually looking away from that controller screen, there’s a few more options at work. I’ve played a few very well-made phone games, usually the issue is just that they’re gacha junk.

          • @Xanvial@lemmy.oneEnglish
            2•9 months ago

            Yeah, but for mobile games you look at your phone while pressing the buttons shown in the same place.

            In this case you play looking at your tv, while pressing button in your phone, which will be horrible because you can’t feel where’s each button without looking away from tv

          • Rikudou_SageEnglish
            1•9 months ago

            This is not the case, though. This article is about the phone serving as a controller for the TV.

    • ScrubblesEnglish
      7•9 months ago

      I mean yeah if you’re playing the witcher, but if they are games like Jackbox style then it makes complete sense.

      Granted Netflix has burned me too many times so I won’t be resubscribing for this.

  • Metal ZealotEnglish
    17•9 months ago

    They looked at Stadia and thought:

    “How can we make this worse?”

  • CynicalStoic
    2•9 months ago

    I do find it interesting how far ahead of its time the GameCube controller is though. It was almost a precursor for mobile button layout with the large A and other buttons around it in a non-traditional form/layout. That’s what immediately came to mind when seeing the controller layouts.

    I’m not a huge fan of cloud gaming but Netflix may be on to something here by having games be added value to a sub rather than a discrete service with a separate sub. Plus from my experience, it’s not like the apps are streamed to your device but are available for download with an active sub.