Cozy Grove studio Spry Fox now belongs to Netflix
Netflix says the studio will help accelerate its development of games in a “beloved genre.”
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Spry Fox, the Seattle-based developer of games including Triple Town,Road Not Taken, andCozy Grove, is now a Netflix studio. Netflix said the addition of Spry Fox to its stable of in-house studios “will help accelerate our creative development in another beloved genre and add to the growing variety of Netflix’s games catalog that will have something for everyone.”
Netflix didn’t specify which “beloved genre” it was speaking about, but given Spry Fox’s history, it’s a safe bet that it will be something ‘cozy.’
“When David and I founded Spry Fox twelve years ago, our goal was to create a place where kind, creative people could make beautiful, original games in a supportive environment that brought happiness to the people who played them,” Spry Fox co-founder Daniel Cooksaid. “After many heartfelt conversations, we are all excited about joining Netflix as an in-house game studio and building amazing games together.”
In a separatepost, Spry Fox said the deal will enable it to continue making games as it always has, “but with more support and resources” and without stressing about profitability. It will also open the door to collaboration with other creative types at Netflix, which will help it “to hopefully get better at what we do and how we do it.” The studio’s existing games will continue to be available on their current platforms, and its current projects—Cozy Grove 2 and a “larger, non-violent MMO”—will continue development unabated.
“Real talk: we’ve been at this for almost 13 years,” Spry Fox said. “It’s been exhilarating, humbling, endlessly interesting and often challenging. We’ve always known that above all else, we wanted our games to bring people happiness. But in other ways, it feels like we only recently figured out what ‘we want to be when we grow up.’
“What has become clear over the course of all of our adventures: We are a studio that builds original, world-class cozy games. Especially games that bring people together. And we are confident that Netflix is going to help us do that.”
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Netflix announced its intention toget into gamingin 2021, and Spry Fox will be its sixth in-house development studio. Netflix’s focus was primarily onmobile gamingat the outset, but it’s also indicated an interest in bigger and better things, most recently saying that it is “seriously exploring” a move intocloud gaming.
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.Lotsof Henry Cavill.
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