hulu and Xbox announced a partnership agreement that will give existing US Hulu subscribers three free months of PC Game Pass as part of Hulu’s “Friends with Benefits” initiative. The move to target gamers follows Netflix’s entry into the gaming market, where the streamer has included a number of ad-free mobile games as part of its subscription service.
However, Hulu and Xbox’s offerings are a limited time deal – not a new game initiative. The companies said this current offer is redeemable until July 23, 2022 and is only valid for PC Game Pass, not Game Pass Ultimate. It can also only be redeemed by Hulu subscribers in the US who have a new Game Pass.
This appears to be the first time Hulu has made deals like this with a gaming company. Xbox partnered with Disney’s other streaming service, Disney+, in 2020, offering Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers one month free Disney+†
Hulu wrote in a statement“At Hulu, every decision we make starts with the viewer. We do this by bringing the stories we bring to life and by giving Hulu subscribers the chance to participate in their favorite shows, movies and brands through select benefits and activations, including the ‘Hulu Friends with Benefits’ initiative Hulu’s way of saying thank you for just being a fan, because that’s what friends are for.”
Normally PC Game Pass costs $9.99 per month, so this offer is a chance for PC gamers to try out over 100 different games, including titles like “Minecraft”, “Microsoft Flight Simulator”, “Forza Horizon 5” , “Halo,” as well as access to EA Play games such as “The Sims 4,” “It Takes Two,” and “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.” PC Game Pass also gives access to many new games on the same day they launch. appear in the store. Xbox said in his announcement that more games would be released in the next three months.
While hardcore gamers love to play on consoles, there are a surprising number of dedicated PC gamers. statistic shows there are 1.77 billion worldwide, and the number is expected to rise, to over 1.9 billion by 2024.
On the other hand, Insider Intelligence believes that the number of PC gamers will only decline by 2022 and that mobile games will dominate. This could explain why Netflix approached mobile games rather than PC. Mobile gaming is another impressive competitor in the gaming space, and Netflix has catered to this demographic of more casual gamers on the go. According to apptopiaNetflix’s mobile games have been installed more than 8 million times since launch.
In March, Netflix announced its sole first-person shooter title, “Into the Dead 2: Unleashed,” which could expand its appeal to more game enthusiasts. In addition, Business Insider pointed to an older Netflix job offer that may have suggested the company plans to expand into console and PC gaming. The job posting was for a video game tech artist and said the ideal candidate would have “provided three or more console or PC games as an engineer or equivalent.”
The “League of Legends” animated series “Arcane” was a hit for the series, so it’s no surprise that the game “Hextech Mayhem”, licensed by developer Riot Games, has had some success with 58% of the League of Legends- fans in the US subscribe to Netflix more often than other streaming services, per Interpret data. Fifty-five percent of all gamers choose to subscribe to the streamer, while 27% and 16% of gamers choose Hulu’s ad-supported subscription and ad-free tier, respectively.
In total, Netflix has 221 million subscribers worldwide and shareholders disappointed with a loss of 200,000 subscribers in its recent quarterly report. For the second quarter of 2022, total combined subscriptions for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ were over 205 million, with Hulu contributing 45.6 million subscribers.
While there’s no indication that Hulu will take the same route as Netflix, it’s interesting that more streaming services have started following each other down the gaming rabbit hole.
