According to TechCrunch, Netflix is acquiring Ready Player Me, an Estonia-based avatar creation platform. The deal, with undisclosed terms, brings in a team of around 20 people, including founders Rainer Selvet, Haver Jarveoja, Kaspar Tiri, and Timmu Toke. Ready Player Me had previously raised $72 million from investors like a16z, Endeavor, and founders from Roblox and Twitch. The startup will wind down its services, including its online avatar tool PlayerZero, by January 31, 2026. Netflix plans to use the tech to let subscribers carry avatars across different games, though it hasn’t specified a launch timeline or which games will get them first.
Netflix’s Gaming Pivot Is Real
Look, this isn’t just another studio buy. This acquisition is a clear signal that Netflix’s gaming strategy has fundamentally changed. Remember, they started four years ago with mobile games you’d play on your phone, tied to your subscription. It was basically the “Netflix for games” model. And it… kinda flopped? They bought studios, they licensed big names like GTA: San Andreas, and then shut a bunch of it down. They closed studios like Boss Fight Entertainment and a brand-new AAA studio before it even shipped a game. That whole phase was an experiment, and the results were mixed at best.
The New Playbook: TV and Social
So what’s the new plan? It’s all about the TV and social, interactive experiences. Last year, they brought in Alain Tascan, formerly of Epic Games, as President of Games (after Mike Verdu’s exit), and the shift accelerated. Now they’re pushing party games, kids’ games, and mainstream titles you play on the big screen. Think Netflix Puzzled, a live game show with a cash prize, or bringing WWE2K25 and Red Dead Redemption to the platform. They’re even testing interactive voting for live shows, turning passive viewing into an event. The Ready Player Me buy fits this perfectly. Avatars aren’t for solitary mobile play; they’re for representing yourself in social, TV-based party games and shared worlds.
Why Avatars Are a Big Bet
Here’s the thing: Netflix isn’t just buying an avatar maker. It’s buying an identity layer. Ready Player Me’s whole vision, as CEO Timmu Toke said, was about “avatars and identities to travel across many games and virtual worlds.” That’s incredibly sticky. If you build a cool avatar in one Netflix game, you’re incentivized to jump into another Netflix game to use it. It creates a cohesive ecosystem inside Netflix’s walled garden. It’s the same logic behind their earlier funding and the metaverse dreams of platforms like Roblox. For Netflix, it’s a way to add social texture and persistent identity to what has been a pretty fragmented game catalog. The big question is, will subscribers care? Can Netflix, a brand built on lean-back binging, become a destination for lean-in, interactive play?
A Long Road Ahead
Let’s be real, this is a long-term play. The service winds down in early 2026, and Netflix doesn’t have a launch date. They’re building infrastructure. This acquisition tells us they believe the future of Netflix gaming is communal, screen-based, and identity-driven. They’re moving away from being a passive content library and toward being a platform for interactive entertainment. It’s a risky, expensive bet. But after the mobile missteps, it’s probably the only bet that makes sense for a company whose core product is the TV screen. Now we wait to see if the avatars—and the games built for them—are actually any fun.
