Using a robotic "third thumb" can change how your brain works, according to a new study published by University College London. Specifically, when using a third thumb the human brain begins to blend each finger rather than recognizing each as its own distinctive part of the hand. The UCL and University of Oxford researchers behind this study determined this by scanning the brains of those using a robotic third thumb before use and after five days of training. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/03/28/elon-musk-wants-to-put-a-chip-in-your-brain-ign-daily-fix"] "In our brains, each finger is represented distinctly from the others; among the study participants, the brain activity pattern corresponding to each individual finger became more similar (less distinct)," according to the UCL study. According to one of the researchers behind the study, Paulina Kieliba, this robotic third thumb study is the first to investigate the use of an augmentation device outside of a lab. Twenty participants were trained to use the robotic third thumb over five days and during those five days, they were "encouraged to take the thumb home each day after training to use it in daily life scenarios, totaling two to six hours of wear time per day." These 20 participants were compared to 10 control participants who did the same thing, except their third thumb was static and did not interact with their hand as the robotic thumb did. The study participants first used their thumbs to complete basic tasks like picking up multiple balls or carrying wine glasses. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"] In no time at all, the participants were able to use their thumb for much more advanced things like building a block tower while solving a math problem. The third thumb became something the participants no longer needed to focus on to use to the fullest extent as it instead became just another extension of their hand. "Our study shows that people can quickly learn to control an augmentation device and use it for their benefit, without overthinking," UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience designer and designer of this robotic third thumb, Dani Clode said. "We saw that while using the Third Thumb, people changed their natural hand movements, and they also reported that the robotic thumb felt like part of their own body." While the thumb is just that — a thumb — the team foresees uses for similar body augmentation in the future and it doesn't sound too far from the likes of something found in the Deus Ex series. Kieliba said they foresee body augmentation being valuable to "society in numerous ways, such as enabling a surgeon to get by without an assistant, or a factory worker to work more efficiently." Let's hope the people behind this tech don't become the next Doc Ock. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/11/01/history-of-awesome-deus-ex"] Clode said in the study that she developed the device to work toward reframing how society views prosthetics, "from replacing a lost function to an extension of the human body." Clode's third thumb is 3D-printed and worn on the pinky finger side of the hand. It's controlled by pressure sensors attached to the wearer's feet, specifically on the bottom of the big toes. "Wirelessly connected to the thumb, both toe sensors control different movements of the thumb by immediately responding to subtle changes of pressure from the wearer," the study reads. The participants' brains were scanned a week after the thumb training had subsided and the changes in the brain associated with the robotic third thumb had begun to disappear, which suggests the previous changes seen in the brain aren't necessarily long-term. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/09/the-top-10-modern-rpgs-of-all-time"] "Evolution hasn't prepared us to use an extra body part, and we have found that to extend our abilities in new and unexpected ways, the brain will need to adapt the representation of the biological body," UCL professor, Tamar Makin, said. For more about body augmentation and cyborg robotics, read this story about how Elon Musk's company, Neuralink, is hoping to make a cyborg monkey play "mind pong" and then read about how a Neuralink co-founder says the company could build Jurassic Park if it wanted to. Check out IGN's list of the 25 best Sci-Fi movies after that and then read about why Deus Ex is number 16 on IGN's top 100 RPGs of all time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Using a robotic "third thumb" can change how your brain works, according to a new study published by University College London. Specifically, when using a third thumb the human brain begins to blend each finger rather than recognizing each as its own distinctive part of the hand. The UCL and University of Oxford researchers behind this study determined this by scanning the brains of those using a robotic third thumb before use and after five days of training. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/03/28/elon-musk-wants-to-put-a-chip-in-your-brain-ign-daily-fix"] "In our brains, each finger is represented distinctly from the others; among the study participants, the brain activity pattern corresponding to each individual finger became more similar (less distinct)," according to the UCL study. According to one of the researchers behind the study, Paulina Kieliba, this robotic third thumb study is the first to investigate the use of an augmentation device outside of a lab. Twenty participants were trained to use the robotic third thumb over five days and during those five days, they were "encouraged to take the thumb home each day after training to use it in daily life scenarios, totaling two to six hours of wear time per day." These 20 participants were compared to 10 control participants who did the same thing, except their third thumb was static and did not interact with their hand as the robotic thumb did. The study participants first used their thumbs to complete basic tasks like picking up multiple balls or carrying wine glasses. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"] In no time at all, the participants were able to use their thumb for much more advanced things like building a block tower while solving a math problem. The third thumb became something the participants no longer needed to focus on to use to the fullest extent as it instead became just another extension of their hand. "Our study shows that people can quickly learn to control an augmentation device and use it for their benefit, without overthinking," UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience designer and designer of this robotic third thumb, Dani Clode said. "We saw that while using the Third Thumb, people changed their natural hand movements, and they also reported that the robotic thumb felt like part of their own body." While the thumb is just that — a thumb — the team foresees uses for similar body augmentation in the future and it doesn't sound too far from the likes of something found in the Deus Ex series. Kieliba said they foresee body augmentation being valuable to "society in numerous ways, such as enabling a surgeon to get by without an assistant, or a factory worker to work more efficiently." Let's hope the people behind this tech don't become the next Doc Ock. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/11/01/history-of-awesome-deus-ex"] Clode said in the study that she developed the device to work toward reframing how society views prosthetics, "from replacing a lost function to an extension of the human body." Clode's third thumb is 3D-printed and worn on the pinky finger side of the hand. It's controlled by pressure sensors attached to the wearer's feet, specifically on the bottom of the big toes. "Wirelessly connected to the thumb, both toe sensors control different movements of the thumb by immediately responding to subtle changes of pressure from the wearer," the study reads. The participants' brains were scanned a week after the thumb training had subsided and the changes in the brain associated with the robotic third thumb had begun to disappear, which suggests the previous changes seen in the brain aren't necessarily long-term. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/09/the-top-10-modern-rpgs-of-all-time"] "Evolution hasn't prepared us to use an extra body part, and we have found that to extend our abilities in new and unexpected ways, the brain will need to adapt the representation of the biological body," UCL professor, Tamar Makin, said. For more about body augmentation and cyborg robotics, read this story about how Elon Musk's company, Neuralink, is hoping to make a cyborg monkey play "mind pong" and then read about how a Neuralink co-founder says the company could build Jurassic Park if it wanted to. Check out IGN's list of the 25 best Sci-Fi movies after that and then read about why Deus Ex is number 16 on IGN's top 100 RPGs of all time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Using a robotic "third thumb" can change how your brain works, according to a new study published by University College London. Specifically, when using a third thumb the human brain begins to blend each finger rather than recognizing each as its own distinctive part of the hand. The UCL and University of Oxford researchers behind this study determined this by scanning the brains of those using a robotic third thumb before use and after five days of training. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/03/28/elon-musk-wants-to-put-a-chip-in-your-brain-ign-daily-fix"] "In our brains, each finger is represented distinctly from the others; among the study participants, the brain activity pattern corresponding to each individual finger became more similar (less distinct)," according to the UCL study. According to one of the researchers behind the study, Paulina Kieliba, this robotic third thumb study is the first to investigate the use of an augmentation device outside of a lab. Twenty participants were trained to use the robotic third thumb over five days and during those five days, they were "encouraged to take the thumb home each day after training to use it in daily life scenarios, totaling two to six hours of wear time per day." These 20 participants were compared to 10 control participants who did the same thing, except their third thumb was static and did not interact with their hand as the robotic thumb did. The study participants first used their thumbs to complete basic tasks like picking up multiple balls or carrying wine glasses. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"] In no time at all, the participants were able to use their thumb for much more advanced things like building a block tower while solving a math problem. The third thumb became something the participants no longer needed to focus on to use to the fullest extent as it instead became just another extension of their hand. "Our study shows that people can quickly learn to control an augmentation device and use it for their benefit, without overthinking," UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience designer and designer of this robotic third thumb, Dani Clode said. "We saw that while using the Third Thumb, people changed their natural hand movements, and they also reported that the robotic thumb felt like part of their own body." While the thumb is just that — a thumb — the team foresees uses for similar body augmentation in the future and it doesn't sound too far from the likes of something found in the Deus Ex series. Kieliba said they foresee body augmentation being valuable to "society in numerous ways, such as enabling a surgeon to get by without an assistant, or a factory worker to work more efficiently." Let's hope the people behind this tech don't become the next Doc Ock. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/11/01/history-of-awesome-deus-ex"] Clode said in the study that she developed the device to work toward reframing how society views prosthetics, "from replacing a lost function to an extension of the human body." Clode's third thumb is 3D-printed and worn on the pinky finger side of the hand. It's controlled by pressure sensors attached to the wearer's feet, specifically on the bottom of the big toes. "Wirelessly connected to the thumb, both toe sensors control different movements of the thumb by immediately responding to subtle changes of pressure from the wearer," the study reads. The participants' brains were scanned a week after the thumb training had subsided and the changes in the brain associated with the robotic third thumb had begun to disappear, which suggests the previous changes seen in the brain aren't necessarily long-term. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/09/the-top-10-modern-rpgs-of-all-time"] "Evolution hasn't prepared us to use an extra body part, and we have found that to extend our abilities in new and unexpected ways, the brain will need to adapt the representation of the biological body," UCL professor, Tamar Makin, said. For more about body augmentation and cyborg robotics, read this story about how Elon Musk's company, Neuralink, is hoping to make a cyborg monkey play "mind pong" and then read about how a Neuralink co-founder says the company could build Jurassic Park if it wanted to. Check out IGN's list of the 25 best Sci-Fi movies after that and then read about why Deus Ex is number 16 on IGN's top 100 RPGs of all time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Capcom’s Resident Evil Village launched earlier this month and is already breaking records on Steam. But according to a video released on the Resident Evil YouTube account, the game’s combat was far from perfect during development. The video — “Making of Resident Evil Village – The Internal Struggle” — shows how the development team struggled to get the game into a state that everyone was happy with as well as the impact that COVID-19 had on development. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/21/resident-evil-village-the-making-of-resident-evil-village-the-internal-struggle-video"] According to Director Morimasa Sato, “development came to a complete stop at Capcom due to the self-isolation caused by COVID-19”, and work on Village was halted completely for a whole month. Upon returning to the office, and having had a month to reflect, the whole team agreed that “they needed to fix the game”. When the team shared a demo version of the game with a focus group of players, they noticed that “The enemies were very aggressive, but the players found they didn’t need to think that hard while playing because of this”. Sharing the concerns with Quality Assurance Manager Shutaro Kobayashi, he agreed, revealing he had “a really strong negative reaction”, and that “The game’s content was completely divorced from what the development team thought they had made”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/resident-evil-village-launch-trailer"] Player reactions indicated that the game had “too many enemies, and they’re overly aggressive” while not having enough ammo to defend themselves. Project Manager Tatsuo Isoko described playing the game as “a real slog”. But despite the criticism, Sato “found the development members at Capcom do a great job of listening”. The team wanted the theme of the game to be “the struggle to survive”, but in playtests, it seemed more like a struggle to even enjoy the game. Bringing the QA and development teams together seemed to be the solution though, as the developers directly heard the concerns of the testers. The solution, as revealed by Sato, was to not “make the player panic about by just throwing aggressive monsters at them, (instead) we make them paranoid about if and how they’re going to be attacked. Then, when an enemy appears, it’s relentless.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/08/every-lady-dimitrescu-scene-in-resident-evil-village"] Whether you enjoyed Resident Evil Village or not, the video is definitely worth watching for a peek behind the curtains at one of the biggest games of the year. In other Capcom news, the company has had a fourth record-breaking year, Monster Hunter World has sold over 17 million units, and a movie director has accused Capcom of stealing a monster design for Resident Evil Village. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

Capcom’s Resident Evil Village launched earlier this month and is already breaking records on Steam. But according to a video released on the Resident Evil YouTube account, the game’s combat was far from perfect during development. The video — “Making of Resident Evil Village – The Internal Struggle” — shows how the development team struggled to get the game into a state that everyone was happy with as well as the impact that COVID-19 had on development. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/21/resident-evil-village-the-making-of-resident-evil-village-the-internal-struggle-video"] According to Director Morimasa Sato, “development came to a complete stop at Capcom due to the self-isolation caused by COVID-19”, and work on Village was halted completely for a whole month. Upon returning to the office, and having had a month to reflect, the whole team agreed that “they needed to fix the game”. When the team shared a demo version of the game with a focus group of players, they noticed that “The enemies were very aggressive, but the players found they didn’t need to think that hard while playing because of this”. Sharing the concerns with Quality Assurance Manager Shutaro Kobayashi, he agreed, revealing he had “a really strong negative reaction”, and that “The game’s content was completely divorced from what the development team thought they had made”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/resident-evil-village-launch-trailer"] Player reactions indicated that the game had “too many enemies, and they’re overly aggressive” while not having enough ammo to defend themselves. Project Manager Tatsuo Isoko described playing the game as “a real slog”. But despite the criticism, Sato “found the development members at Capcom do a great job of listening”. The team wanted the theme of the game to be “the struggle to survive”, but in playtests, it seemed more like a struggle to even enjoy the game. Bringing the QA and development teams together seemed to be the solution though, as the developers directly heard the concerns of the testers. The solution, as revealed by Sato, was to not “make the player panic about by just throwing aggressive monsters at them, (instead) we make them paranoid about if and how they’re going to be attacked. Then, when an enemy appears, it’s relentless.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/08/every-lady-dimitrescu-scene-in-resident-evil-village"] Whether you enjoyed Resident Evil Village or not, the video is definitely worth watching for a peek behind the curtains at one of the biggest games of the year. In other Capcom news, the company has had a fourth record-breaking year, Monster Hunter World has sold over 17 million units, and a movie director has accused Capcom of stealing a monster design for Resident Evil Village. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

Capcom’s Resident Evil Village launched earlier this month and is already breaking records on Steam. But according to a video released on the Resident Evil YouTube account, the game’s combat was far from perfect during development. The video — “Making of Resident Evil Village – The Internal Struggle” — shows how the development team struggled to get the game into a state that everyone was happy with as well as the impact that COVID-19 had on development. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/21/resident-evil-village-the-making-of-resident-evil-village-the-internal-struggle-video"] According to Director Morimasa Sato, “development came to a complete stop at Capcom due to the self-isolation caused by COVID-19”, and work on Village was halted completely for a whole month. Upon returning to the office, and having had a month to reflect, the whole team agreed that “they needed to fix the game”. When the team shared a demo version of the game with a focus group of players, they noticed that “The enemies were very aggressive, but the players found they didn’t need to think that hard while playing because of this”. Sharing the concerns with Quality Assurance Manager Shutaro Kobayashi, he agreed, revealing he had “a really strong negative reaction”, and that “The game’s content was completely divorced from what the development team thought they had made”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/resident-evil-village-launch-trailer"] Player reactions indicated that the game had “too many enemies, and they’re overly aggressive” while not having enough ammo to defend themselves. Project Manager Tatsuo Isoko described playing the game as “a real slog”. But despite the criticism, Sato “found the development members at Capcom do a great job of listening”. The team wanted the theme of the game to be “the struggle to survive”, but in playtests, it seemed more like a struggle to even enjoy the game. Bringing the QA and development teams together seemed to be the solution though, as the developers directly heard the concerns of the testers. The solution, as revealed by Sato, was to not “make the player panic about by just throwing aggressive monsters at them, (instead) we make them paranoid about if and how they’re going to be attacked. Then, when an enemy appears, it’s relentless.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/08/every-lady-dimitrescu-scene-in-resident-evil-village"] Whether you enjoyed Resident Evil Village or not, the video is definitely worth watching for a peek behind the curtains at one of the biggest games of the year. In other Capcom news, the company has had a fourth record-breaking year, Monster Hunter World has sold over 17 million units, and a movie director has accused Capcom of stealing a monster design for Resident Evil Village. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

Capcom’s Resident Evil Village launched earlier this month and is already breaking records on Steam. But according to a video released on the Resident Evil YouTube account, the game’s combat was far from perfect during development. The video — “Making of Resident Evil Village – The Internal Struggle” — shows how the development team struggled to get the game into a state that everyone was happy with as well as the impact that COVID-19 had on development. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/21/resident-evil-village-the-making-of-resident-evil-village-the-internal-struggle-video"] According to Director Morimasa Sato, “development came to a complete stop at Capcom due to the self-isolation caused by COVID-19”, and work on Village was halted completely for a whole month. Upon returning to the office, and having had a month to reflect, the whole team agreed that “they needed to fix the game”. When the team shared a demo version of the game with a focus group of players, they noticed that “The enemies were very aggressive, but the players found they didn’t need to think that hard while playing because of this”. Sharing the concerns with Quality Assurance Manager Shutaro Kobayashi, he agreed, revealing he had “a really strong negative reaction”, and that “The game’s content was completely divorced from what the development team thought they had made”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/resident-evil-village-launch-trailer"] Player reactions indicated that the game had “too many enemies, and they’re overly aggressive” while not having enough ammo to defend themselves. Project Manager Tatsuo Isoko described playing the game as “a real slog”. But despite the criticism, Sato “found the development members at Capcom do a great job of listening”. The team wanted the theme of the game to be “the struggle to survive”, but in playtests, it seemed more like a struggle to even enjoy the game. Bringing the QA and development teams together seemed to be the solution though, as the developers directly heard the concerns of the testers. The solution, as revealed by Sato, was to not “make the player panic about by just throwing aggressive monsters at them, (instead) we make them paranoid about if and how they’re going to be attacked. Then, when an enemy appears, it’s relentless.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/08/every-lady-dimitrescu-scene-in-resident-evil-village"] Whether you enjoyed Resident Evil Village or not, the video is definitely worth watching for a peek behind the curtains at one of the biggest games of the year. In other Capcom news, the company has had a fourth record-breaking year, Monster Hunter World has sold over 17 million units, and a movie director has accused Capcom of stealing a monster design for Resident Evil Village. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

It’s no secret that Netflix has been dominating the streaming market for a while now, even with strong competition from services like Disney+, but a new report suggests that it wants to get into the video game industry too. The Information's report, citing "people familar with the situation", reveals that Netflix has been approaching key figures and industry veterans in the gaming industry in order to recruit an executive to oversee an expansion into video games. The suggested approach seems to be the Apple Arcade business model, which allows consumers to pay a fixed fee to access and stream a number of games via the service. Apparently, it hasn't yet been decided whether Netflix will look to develop games itself, or with external publishers. However, it has reportedly confirmed internally that these games will not include advertising. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/18/6-games-that-should-be-netflix-shows-up-at-noon"] Netflix has been very public about wanting to bring more Netflix content into the video games market, even hosting a panel about it at E3 2019. The streaming giant has previously released games based on the Stranger Things license, but this is the first time it has discussed streaming games from its own bespoke platform. In response to the report, a Netflix spokesperson told The Information, "Our members value the variety and quality of our content. It’s why we’ve continually expanded our offering—from series to documentaries, film, local language originals and reality TV. Members also enjoy engaging more directly with stories they love—through interactive shows like ‘Bandersnatch’ and ‘You v. Wild,’ or games based on ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘La Casa de Papel’ and ‘To All the Boys.’ So we’re excited to do more with interactive entertainment." In an earnings call from 2020 (transcribed by The Motley Fool), Netflix co-founder, chairman and CEO Reed Hastings discussed his desire to jump into the video games industry. Reed stated that “video games [are] a great and interesting area, it’s got a number of aspects in terms of multiplayer that are changing, e-sports that are changing, PC-based gaming”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/16/resident-evil-infinite-darkness-character-trailer"] Netflix has been aggressively pursuing video game licenses to make Netflix original content recently, following the success of shows like The Witcher. Upcoming Netflix shows based off video game licenses include: Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Assassin’s Creed, Sonic Prime, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. We’d still like to see that apparently cancelled Legend of Zelda Netflix show, thanks. And there are a number of other video game properties we’d love to see become Netflix shows, while we’re at it. With more and more competitors entering the streaming market, Netflix will have to continue to adapt in order to compete and remain on top. Given that the video games market has remained pretty much untouched by Netflix’s direct competitors so far, it could be just the thing that continues to give them the edge as the streaming wars heat up. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

It’s no secret that Netflix has been dominating the streaming market for a while now, even with strong competition from services like Disney+, but a new report suggests that it wants to get into the video game industry too. The Information's report, citing "people familar with the situation", reveals that Netflix has been approaching key figures and industry veterans in the gaming industry in order to recruit an executive to oversee an expansion into video games. The suggested approach seems to be the Apple Arcade business model, which allows consumers to pay a fixed fee to access and stream a number of games via the service. Apparently, it hasn't yet been decided whether Netflix will look to develop games itself, or with external publishers. However, it has reportedly confirmed internally that these games will not include advertising. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/18/6-games-that-should-be-netflix-shows-up-at-noon"] Netflix has been very public about wanting to bring more Netflix content into the video games market, even hosting a panel about it at E3 2019. The streaming giant has previously released games based on the Stranger Things license, but this is the first time it has discussed streaming games from its own bespoke platform. In response to the report, a Netflix spokesperson told The Information, "Our members value the variety and quality of our content. It’s why we’ve continually expanded our offering—from series to documentaries, film, local language originals and reality TV. Members also enjoy engaging more directly with stories they love—through interactive shows like ‘Bandersnatch’ and ‘You v. Wild,’ or games based on ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘La Casa de Papel’ and ‘To All the Boys.’ So we’re excited to do more with interactive entertainment." In an earnings call from 2020 (transcribed by The Motley Fool), Netflix co-founder, chairman and CEO Reed Hastings discussed his desire to jump into the video games industry. Reed stated that “video games [are] a great and interesting area, it’s got a number of aspects in terms of multiplayer that are changing, e-sports that are changing, PC-based gaming”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/16/resident-evil-infinite-darkness-character-trailer"] Netflix has been aggressively pursuing video game licenses to make Netflix original content recently, following the success of shows like The Witcher. Upcoming Netflix shows based off video game licenses include: Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Assassin’s Creed, Sonic Prime, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. We’d still like to see that apparently cancelled Legend of Zelda Netflix show, thanks. And there are a number of other video game properties we’d love to see become Netflix shows, while we’re at it. With more and more competitors entering the streaming market, Netflix will have to continue to adapt in order to compete and remain on top. Given that the video games market has remained pretty much untouched by Netflix’s direct competitors so far, it could be just the thing that continues to give them the edge as the streaming wars heat up. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

It’s no secret that Netflix has been dominating the streaming market for a while now, even with strong competition from services like Disney+, but a new report suggests that it wants to get into the video game industry too. The Information's report, citing "people familar with the situation", reveals that Netflix has been approaching key figures and industry veterans in the gaming industry in order to recruit an executive to oversee an expansion into video games. The suggested approach seems to be the Apple Arcade business model, which allows consumers to pay a fixed fee to access and stream a number of games via the service. Apparently, it hasn't yet been decided whether Netflix will look to develop games itself, or with external publishers. However, it has reportedly confirmed internally that these games will not include advertising. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/18/6-games-that-should-be-netflix-shows-up-at-noon"] Netflix has been very public about wanting to bring more Netflix content into the video games market, even hosting a panel about it at E3 2019. The streaming giant has previously released games based on the Stranger Things license, but this is the first time it has discussed streaming games from its own bespoke platform. In response to the report, a Netflix spokesperson told The Information, "Our members value the variety and quality of our content. It’s why we’ve continually expanded our offering—from series to documentaries, film, local language originals and reality TV. Members also enjoy engaging more directly with stories they love—through interactive shows like ‘Bandersnatch’ and ‘You v. Wild,’ or games based on ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘La Casa de Papel’ and ‘To All the Boys.’ So we’re excited to do more with interactive entertainment." In an earnings call from 2020 (transcribed by The Motley Fool), Netflix co-founder, chairman and CEO Reed Hastings discussed his desire to jump into the video games industry. Reed stated that “video games [are] a great and interesting area, it’s got a number of aspects in terms of multiplayer that are changing, e-sports that are changing, PC-based gaming”. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/16/resident-evil-infinite-darkness-character-trailer"] Netflix has been aggressively pursuing video game licenses to make Netflix original content recently, following the success of shows like The Witcher. Upcoming Netflix shows based off video game licenses include: Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Assassin’s Creed, Sonic Prime, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. We’d still like to see that apparently cancelled Legend of Zelda Netflix show, thanks. And there are a number of other video game properties we’d love to see become Netflix shows, while we’re at it. With more and more competitors entering the streaming market, Netflix will have to continue to adapt in order to compete and remain on top. Given that the video games market has remained pretty much untouched by Netflix’s direct competitors so far, it could be just the thing that continues to give them the edge as the streaming wars heat up. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman