Netflix, the platform that has bet big on the interactive with the iconic Bandersnatch, is drawing a line under its videos where the viewer becomes a scriptwriter. Recently, the majority of this interactive content has disappeared from the catalog, the firm preferring to concentrate its resources on new technological priorities.
In December 2018, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch made an impression with its concept of multiple choices which influence the destiny of the characters. A unique experience for the public which, despite everything, left a mixed success, without sparking the expected revolution. Since then, Netflix has never managed to recreate the popularity of this unique episode, and the other interactive trials have remained in the shadows.
In 2017, Netflix had promised a boom in this type of content, and even launched titles for children, such as an interactive episode of Puss in Boots. Three years later, the catalog only had around twenty. Today, only four of these interactive videos, including Bandersnatch, are still accessible on the platform. The adventure is therefore coming to an end for this ambitious project.
Change of direction towards other technologies
Netflix confirmed it to The Verge: technology has reached its limits in the context of the platform. “The technology has served its purpose,” commented a spokesperson, explaining that Netflix now wanted to “focus its efforts in other areas”. Among these new directions, mobile video games remain a priority. Despite some failures, such as the closure of its internal Blue studio without launching a game, Netflix seems to persist in its objective of expanding its range of games for connected televisions.
Source : 01Net
This article was reprinted on the Univers FreeBox website
