Netflix is ​​acquiring gaming avatar maker Ready Player Me

after Change their gaming strategy To focus more on games played on TV, Netflix announced that it has acquired Ready Player Me, an avatar creation platform based in Estonia. The streamer said Friday that it plans to use the startup’s development tools and infrastructure to create avatars that will allow Netflix subscribers to carry their personalities and fanbase across different games.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ready Player Me has raised $72 million In support of the project from investors Included a16z, Endeavor, Konvoy Ventures, Plural, and several angels, including co-founders of companies like Roblox, Twitch, and King Games.

Netflix told TechCrunch that the startup’s team of about 20 people will join the company, including founders Rainer Selvet, Haver Jarveoja, Kaspar Tiri, and Timmu Toke. She has no estimate on how long it will take until the avatars are released. It also doesn’t include details on which games or game types will be the first to get avatars.

Following the acquisition, Ready Player Me will terminate its services on January 31, 2026, including the online avatar builder, PlayerZero.

“Our vision has always been to enable avatars and identities to travel across multiple games and virtual worlds,” Ready Player Me CEO Timo Tuck said in a statement. “We’ve been on an independent path to making this vision a reality for a long time. I’m now very excited to have the Ready Player Me team join Netflix to expand our technology and expertise to reach a global audience and contribute to the exciting vision Netflix brings to gaming.”

Netflix gaming transformation

The Netflix deal represents the company’s changing approach to gaming.

When it moved into the market four years ago, the company offered mobile games to its subscribers, who log in with their Netflix accounts. at that time, Netflix explained They consider gaming another new category, similar to their other expansions into original films, animation, and unscripted television.

Netflix has acquired several game studios and titles, and licensed others, under the leadership of Mike Verdoux, the company’s vice president of gaming who previously worked at EA and Kabam. That strategy saw mixed results. While some of its bigger, more popular titles may have attracted some customers, such as GTA: San Andreas, others were almost unknown. (The company recently said GTA was on its way outin addition to dozens of other titles.)

Netflix also close under a lot to Acquisitions of its own studio or He returned them to their founders.

To some extent, these changes were predictable. Going into this, Netflix knew it was a go-to Gaming will be an experienceand she will have to adapt as she discovers what worked and what didn’t.

As part of the strategic transformation, Netflix Brought last year A new CEO, Alan Taskan, formerly of Epic Games, will serve as President of Games. Verdu, who was then Vice President of Generative AI for Games, He left after seven months.

Within Taskan, it has Netflix It has expanded its game lineup for television It began to focus on party games, children’s games, narrative games, and more mainstream titles.

Recently, the streamer released List of multiplayer games for TVs and mobile phones, Including Netflix Puzzled, PAW Patrol Academy, and more WWE2K25, Red dead redemptionand Best guess, live party game With hosts Hunter March and Howie Mandel, and a grand prize of $1 million. And this week too Announcing the new FIFA title It will be shown on TVs in time for the 2026 World Cup.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt event in October, Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s CTO, said the company It offers real-time interactive voting for live content, Which she’s already been testing out with a live cooking show and will soon bring back for a reboot of the talent show “Star Search.”

In this way, Netflix is ​​now closely following how the television industry has embraced mobile and interactive experiences by allowing audiences to vote for their favorite “American Idol” contestants or favorite couples on reality shows like “Love Island.”

Whether Netflix can convince its audience to think of its brand – traditionally associated with passive viewing – as something to turn to in interactive activities like gaming remains to be seen.