The Netflix Sport Controller app for the iPhone and iPad mysteriously popped up within the App Retailer. Screenshot: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
When you nonetheless can’t share passwords with out paying further, it feels like Netflix will quickly try to sweeten your subscription deal by bringing its sport choices to your TV. The streaming big has unexpectedly printed the Netflix Sport Controller to the iPhone App Retailer with none heads-up or an official launch announcement. Curious iPhone and iPad customers can obtain it now totally free.
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I attempted the app on our iPhone 14 Professional Max evaluate unit. It really works, however it doesn’t do something past asking that you just select a sport in your TV. There’s no different data past that, and there doesn’t appear to be a suitable sport out proper now. It’s additionally unclear how the telephone connects to your TV—will it join by way of wifi, or will it depend on a suitable set-top field with Bluetooth accent connectivity?
The splash display on the Netflix sport controller app. Screenshot: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
There’s a hyperlink for extra assist on the backside of the Sport Controller splash display, although it takes you to Netflix’s normal assist boards. I contacted Netflix to ask whether or not the streaming sport service teased earlier this yr was formally launched, since that’s after we initially began listening to about this phone-based sport controller. However a spokesperson mentioned the corporate isn’t commenting on the information.
TechCrunch was the primary to catch the Netflix Sport Controller app floating round earlier right this moment. In its report, it plugged its October 2022 interview with Netflix’s VP of Gaming, Mike Verdu, who informed an viewers at TechCrunch Disrupt that the corporate was seeking to pursue a “cloud gaming providing.” Verdu had talked about the video games could possibly be thought of a “worth add” however that it wasn’t planning to place the suite of video games as a “console substitute.”
Netflix has already been publishing cellular video games to Apple’s App Retailer and the Google Play Retailer since 2021, so it’s not significantly far off that it could try to pursue this enterprise now, particularly as a good portion of the leisure trade is on strike. However since this isn’t an official launch, questions stay, like how will the smartphone sync up together with your TV? Will this be a sport management app for Netflix’s present sport choices, or is there new stuff on the horizon from the gaming firm it launched late final yr? And most significantly, will this be acquired as a “value-add” by these slighted by the password-sharing limitations launched earlier this yr?