Mobile subscriptions are shedding unique indie games in search of a bigger audience

The Verge

17 hours ago

is a reporter who covers the business, culture, and communities of video games, with a focus on marginalized gamers and the quirky, horny culture of video game communities.
For the last few years, subscription gaming services like Apple Arcade and Netflix have offered mobile game developers something of a haven for high-quality, premium mobile games: a type of game that had become vanishingly rare following the rise of the microtransaction-stuffed free-to-play model. But as these services' once enviable lineup of indie games dwindles, that haven appears to be shrinking.
In 2021, Netflix announced a new gaming initiative, offering users a chance to play games through the streaming service's mobile app. Apple launched a similar program with Apple Arcade just two years before that. Both services offered an interesting value proposition: Pay a monthly subscription fee to get access to a library of premium games, with some of those games available as mobile exclusives. Those games would have no ads or in-app purchases, and the money paid to studios would ostensibly be used to fund the development of more games.
Desta: The Memories Between was one of the first original indie games available as a mobile exclusive on Netflix. Image: Ustwo / Netflix
In addition to serving as a publisher, Netflix took the additional step of outright purchasing game studios like Oxenfree developer Night School Studio and Cozy Grove studio Spry Fox to make bespoke games for the service. But late last year, Netflix closed down the studio it spun up to produce what was going to be the service's first blockbuster AAA game. Then, just this month, it announced it was going to delist some of its most notable third-party titles, including indie darlings like Hades and the Monument Valley series.
Netflix is increasingly focused on games tied to its own content. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the platform briefly extolled its continued investment in titles like Squid Game: Unleashed and Thronglets — games tied to Netflix-produced Squid Game and Black Mirror, respectively.
This focus, though, seems to come at the expense of adding existing original games from independent developers. It's easy to understand this shift. While these services don't share much about hard numbers, third-party reporting suggested that the majority of Netflix users never engaged with the platform's gaming offerings. And the games they were playing, in however limited amounts, were familiar titles. It's no surprise that GTA had Netflix's biggest game launch.
The GTA series are some of the most-played games on Netflix.
At GDC 2025, Netflix's president of games, Alain Tascan, spoke to The Verge about the platform refocusing its gaming efforts, saying of indie games, 'We will continue supporting some of them, but I feel that indie gamers are not really coming to Netflix to find indie games.'
So far Apple has only purchased a single game studio to make content for Apple Arcade, though its retreat to more casual offerings follows a similar pattern as Netflix. Original or indie games appear less frequently in favor of those attached to big, family-friendly IP like Uno, Angry Birds, and Bluey, all three of which are featured in Apple Arcade's July update. Payouts from Apple Arcade have reportedly been shrinking while developers have complained that it's hard to get their games noticed on the platform.
The free-to-play model has conditioned users that spending money for gaming content can be optional. Casual games like Monopoly Go make money through in-game advertisements or opt-in consumer spending on microtransactions, and few traditional paid games outside of Minecraft are now able to break through that mindset.
Subscription services were viewed as a kind of equalizer. With investment from Apple and Netflix and elsewhere, quality games could be brought to a platform not generally associated with quality gaming experiences. Developers could fund their vision and not have to worry about monetization, while consumers could access those games with a monthly subscription and no added costs.
But a few years in, the aim of these services has been adjusted, and casual games designed to keep eyeballs on an app for as long as possible, or promote the latest streaming series, have won out. Despite strong lineups of indie games, neither Netflix nor Apple could really cut through the noise, and their offerings are no longer unique. Worse still, the unique games they did have now have fewer places to go.