Welcome to Lowpass! This week: Why you shouldn’t discount Netflix Games. Also: Our anniversary!

Lowpass turns two

It’s been two years this week since I sent out the first issue of Lowpass to former subscribers of the Protocol Entertainment newsletter – and it’s been a whirlwind ever since. 

I just ran the numbers, and apparently sent out around 1.7 million emails to over 22,000 unique subscribers over the past two years. Phew!

But of course, Lowpass has never just been about the numbers. My goal wasn’t to build yet another link aggregation / hot takes newsletter, but turn Lowpass into a platform for original reporting on the future of tech and entertainment.

Over past 12 months alone, I broke the news of Redbox’s shut-down, gave the world a first (and perhaps also last) look at planned sports streamer Venu, revealed that The Trade Desk was building its own TV OS and that Sonos had planned to be its first customer, and was first to write about Dreampark, the world’s first mixed reality theme park.

I also interviewed Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, Google execs Shalini Govil-Pai and Rishi Chandra as well as Amazon exec Daniel Rausch, told the story behind a decade of Roku TVs, took a close look at Netflix’s plans for generative AI, Snap’s new Spectacles and spatial computing’s biggest myths, among many other topics.

None of this would have been possible without you, my readers. Not only do many of you open my emails every single week, you also forward issues of the newsletter to friends and colleagues, send me valuable input and news tips, and even occasionally comment on the dumb jokes and weird anecdotes I put at the end of every issue. (As one reader recently put it: “I have to say, this is the first time I've had a tech newsletter give me tips on cooking beans.”)

Special thanks go out to those of you who are paying Lowpass subscribers. Their contributions have been instrumental in turning Lowpass what it is today, and help me keep going for years to come.

With that in mind, I have two asks: 

• Please consider signing up for a paid subscription plan ($8 a month / $80 a year) if you can. To celebrate the anniversary, you can now join with a one-month free trial. There are also gift subscriptions available if you want to spread the love.

• Please tell the world about Lowpass. A social media post, a mention on your company Slack, or even a forwarded email goes a long way to helping me grow this newsletter further.

And of course, as always, email me any time if you have any comments, questions, concerns ... or know of better ways to cook beans. 😏

Onward!

Don’t discount Netflix’s gaming ambitions

It’s been four years since Netflix began its foray into gaming, and the journey hasn’t been without hiccups. Early stumbles included the closure of one of its internal studios as well as the demotion and then departure of former gaming head Mike Verdu. But listen to his successor Alain Tascan, and you get the sense that gaming is still very much a major priority for the streaming service.

“We are not yet the Netflix of games,” Tascan told journalists at a recent Netflix Game Developers Conference event. “But that's exactly where we are headed.”

Tascan joined Netflix from Epic Games last summer, where he had been in charge of first-party titles like Fortnite. In his new role, he clearly has a go-big-or-go-home mandate. “We have to match the overall mission of Netflix,” Tascan said. “Otherwise, we're just a distraction.”

It’s easy to discount Netflix foray into gaming as such a distraction, especially given the lack of focus over the first couple of years. The company acquired a more or less random catalog of mobile games – and when its AAA gaming ambitions hit a roadblock, seemingly retreated to the safety of cheap narrative games for homegrown reality TV shows like Too Hot to Handle.

But during Netflix’s GDC event, Tascan and his team made it clear that they still have a few arrows left in their quiver. These include novel approaches to gaming that would be hard to pull off for anyone but the streamer.

Here’s why Netflix may be in the best position to become the Netflix of games:

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