Bulletins

Apple has Netflix in contortions just to offer games on the App Store

Netflix games will not be playable from the Netflix streaming app on iPhones.

Netflix games illustration
Netflix is kicking off its foray into mobile gaming with five titles.
Image: Netflix

Netflix has five new games on offer starting this week, but iPhone users won't be able to play them yet because Apple's App Store rules prohibit companies like Netflix from becoming a gaming provider or service platform through an app.

While Android users should have access to the games through an all-service Netflix app in the future, Netflix plans to eventually allow players using Apple products to download each game individually, according to a Bloomberg report. While this isn't convenient for users, Apple would have to agree to give Netflix — technically a major streaming service competitor — an exception to its rules if users are ever going to be allowed to game from inside Netflix on their iPhones or iPads.

The strict app store rules have gotten Apple into hot water in the past, leading to a lawsuit from Epic Games that accused the company of an illegal monopoly over gaming developers. The ruling in that case went mostly in favor of Apple, though the company was forced to make some small concessions, none of which will affect this particular problem for Netflix.

Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

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