Netflix will offer its iOS games through the App Store and not cloud gaming

Netflix has recently offered games, but only for users with an Android device. Support for iOS will come a bit later, as the service has already announced. And for once, Netflix will go through the App Store and not cloud gaming.

Netflix games on iOS will arrive via the App Store

Developer Steve Moser delved into Netflix’s app code and found several clues that the games will indeed be available through the App Store. It will be an App Store listing per game and not an all-in-one application to have access to everything. The Netflix application should still include links that direct users to the App Store to download a particular title.

Netflix could have offered cloud gaming from the start with games running on servers and all accessible from a single application, like xCloud and Stadia. But the rules of the App Store prevent it from doing so, with Apple being very strict about cloud gaming and this concept of all games in one place. In the case of xCloud, Stadia or GeForce Now, access to the games is via Safari and not the App Store. It’s a way around Apple’s strict rules.

Cloud gaming in the future?

Netflix’s approach here for games on iOS via the App Store is already applied on the Android side: you have to download the games one by one via the Google Play Store. But according to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Netflix is ​​expected to change how it works in the future and switch to cloud gaming. This would make it possible to have a single application to access all the games. At least that would be possible on Android. As for iOS, Netflix would have to go through Safari. Or else, Apple would have to relax its App Store rules.