Netflix acquires gaming avatar maker Prepared Participant Me

[ad_1] After shifting its gaming technique to focus extra on video games performed on the TV, Netflix introduced it’s buying Prepared Participant Me, an avatar-creation platform based mostly in Estonia. The streamer stated Friday it plans to make use of the startup’s improvement instruments and infrastructure to construct avatars that may permit Netflix subscribers to hold their personas and fandom throughout totally different video games.

Phrases of the deal weren't disclosed. Prepared Participant Me had raised $72 million in enterprise backing from traders, together with a16z, Endeavor, Konvoy Ventures, Plural, and numerous angels, together with the co-founders of corporations like Roblox, Twitch, and King Video games.

Netflix instructed TechCrunch the startup’s group of round 20 folks will likely be becoming a member of the corporate, together with the founders Rainer Selvet, Haver Järveoja, Kaspar Tiri, and Timmu Tõke. It doesn’t have an estimate of how lengthy it is going to be till avatars launch. Nor does it element which video games or forms of video games will likely be first to get avatars.

Following the acquisition, Prepared Participant Me will likely be winding down its companies on January 31, 2026, together with its on-line avatar creation device, PlayerZero.

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“Our imaginative and prescient has all the time been to allow avatars and identities to journey throughout many video games and digital worlds,” Prepared Participant Me CEO Timmu Tõke stated in a press release. “We’ve been on an impartial path to make that imaginative and prescient a actuality for a very long time. I’m now very excited for the Prepared Participant Me group to affix Netflix to scale our tech and experience to a world viewers and contribute to the thrilling imaginative and prescient Netflix has for gaming.”

Netflix’s gaming shift

Netflix’s deal represents the corporate’s altering method to video games.

When it moved into the market 4 years in the past, the corporate provided cellular video games to its subscribers, who would log in utilizing their Netflix accounts. On the time, Netflix defined that it noticed gaming as one other new class, just like its different expansions into unique movies, animation, and unscripted TV.

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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="436" height="600" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-3077755" style="width:244px;height:auto" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg 436w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg?resize=109,150 109w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg?resize=218,300 218w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg?resize=312,430 312w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg?resize=273,375 273w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg?resize=386,531 386w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/crop-Alain-Tascan-_-Courtesy-of-Netflix_1zoJeJxyH.jpg?resize=36,50 36w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 436px) 100vw, 436px"/> Picture Credit:Netflix

Netflix acquired quite a few gaming studios and titles, and licensed others, beneath the management of Mike Verdu, the corporate’s VP of video games who previously labored at EA and Kabam. That technique noticed combined outcomes. Whereas a few of its bigger, extra well-known titles might have attracted some prospects, like GTA: San Andreas, others have been nearly unknown. (The corporate lately stated the GTA recreation was on its approach out, too, alongside dozens of different titles.)

Netflix additionally shut down lots of its studio acquisitions or returned them to their founders.

To some extent, these modifications might have been anticipated. Going into this, Netflix knew that transferring into gaming could be an experiment, and it must adapt because it found what labored and what didn’t.

As a part of its technique shift, Netflix final yr introduced in a brand new government, Alain Tascan, previously of Epic Video games, as its president of video games. Verdu, who was then VP of generative AI for video games, left seven months later.

Beneath Tascan, Netflix has expanded its gaming lineup for TV and begun specializing in occasion video games, children’ video games, narrative video games, and extra mainstream titles.

Not too long ago, the streamer launched a slate of occasion video games for TVs and cellular, together with Netflix Puzzled, PAW Patrol Academy, plus WWE 2K25, Crimson Lifeless Redemption, and Finest Guess, a reside occasion recreation with hosts Hunter March and Howie Mandel, and a $1 million jackpot. This week, it additionally introduced a brand new FIFA title could be coming to TVs in time for the World Cup in 2026.

At TechCrunch Disrupt’s occasion this October, Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone stated the corporate was introducing interactive real-time voting for reside content material, which it was already testing with a reside cooking present and would quickly carry to its reboot of the expertise present “Star Search.”

On this approach, Netflix is now extra intently following how the TV business embraced cellular, interactive experiences by permitting viewers voting for “American Idol” contestants or favourite {couples} on actuality reveals like “Love Island.”

Whether or not Netflix can persuade its viewers to consider its model — historically related to passive, lean-back viewing — as one thing to show to for interactive actions like gaming, nonetheless stays to be seen.