Explore ‘Playables’ – Netflix’s Answer to YouTube Gaming

After the lackluster performance of its gaming platform, Stadia, Google is contemplating venturing into the realm of online gaming. The tech giant is now focusing on YouTube, which already serves as a significant platform for game livestreams and contributes to a substantial portion of its revenue. To enhance its gaming offerings, YouTube is said to be developing a new feature called “Playables.”

The Wall Street Journal revealed that YouTube is internally testing a Playables feature that allows users to play games directly on the platform. Employees have been invited to test the product, and the company is adding a variety of games to the testing lineup, including Stack Bounce. After the official release, Playables will be available not only on the YouTube website through web browsers, but also on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms.

A YouTube spokesperson told Reuters that gaming has been a focus for the company for a long time, and they are constantly experimenting with new features. However, they had no specific announcements at this time.

The move to host online games on YouTube is in line with CEO Neal Mohan’s strategy to seek new growth opportunities amid slowing advertising spending, as noted in the WSJ report. YouTube is a popular destination for streaming games and watching live video footage, so it’s a natural fit for expanding games.

Although still in development, Playables is expected to be similar to Netflix Games, which allows users to select and play light games categorized by genre and age rating on its online platform, Android and iOS apps. By introducing Playables, YouTube aims to provide its user base with an additional channel for entertainment and exploration.

Notably, this development comes just months after Google shut down its cloud-based game streaming service, Google Stadia, in January. With Playables, YouTube seems to be taking a different approach to giving online gaming a new spin.