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Netflix Buys Avatar-Company Ready Player Me
Image courtesy of Ready Player Me // Illustration by Kate Walker
Netflix is acquiring the Estonian avatar-creation platform Ready Player Me, so subscribers can customize their own digital personas for use in the streamer’s games.
The Big Picture: One of the streaming industry’s next big ambitions is to inject platforms with a metaverse-like quality. Disney is already ahead of the curve thanks to its deals with Epic Games and OpenAI. Now, Netflix is looking to close the gap with an acquisition that could even outpace the Mouse House in turning static user profiles into active characters.
Behind The Personas: One day, your avatar could scroll Netflix for you.
Netflix is buying Ready Player Me for an undisclosed amount, but the company has raised $72 million in funding from investors such as Endeavor and a16z.
The company will integrate directly into Netflix, and 20 of its employees (including co-founder and CTO Rainer Selvet) will join the company.
The deal will eventually allow Netflix subscribers to create avatars that will be playable across games — an exact rollout date has yet to be determined.
Ready Player Me’s services outside of Netflix (used by 25,000 developers) will shut down on January 31st. That includes the online-avatar building tool PlayerZero.
Last Level: Netflix has been seriously overhauling its game division over the past 18 months, installing former Epic Games exec Alain Tascan at the helm. Under his leadership, the company has been transitioning from mobile-first, licensed games made by outside studios to in-house development — with a focus on party games, narrative experiences, kids games, and “mainstream” AAA titles (think Red Dead Redemption and a new FIFA) designed to feel native to the TV app.
While it’s still unclear which titles will get avatar-creation tools first, weaving them into Mario Party–style party games feels like a sure bet.
Coming Soon: As Netflix builds out interactive tools across its entertainment categories, giving users the ability to create customizable avatars could gamify every aspect of the app experience.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.