{"id":862,"date":"2025-12-20T04:44:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/netflix-is-acquiring-game-avatar-maker-ready-player-me\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T04:44:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:44:43","slug":"netflix-is-acquiring-game-avatar-maker-ready-player-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/netflix-is-acquiring-game-avatar-maker-ready-player-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix is acquiring game avatar maker Ready Player Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix is acquiring Estonian startup <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/readyplayer.me\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\">Ready Player Me<\/a>, a company creating &#8220;cross-game avatar tech&#8221; that allows players to bring their digital personas with them to different games, the company&#8217;s CEO Timmu T\u00f5ke <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link rapid-with-clickid\" href=\"https:\/\/shopping.yahoo.com\/rdlw?merchantId=6deefbf2-941b-4156-9f41-a61ebb50d13d&amp;siteId=us-engadget&amp;pageId=1p-autolink&amp;contentUuid=b7822683-862a-4270-b2d5-2957d63862c2&amp;featureId=text-link&amp;merchantName=LinkedIn&amp;linkText=shared+in+a+LinkedIn+post&amp;custData=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&amp;signature=AQAAAeKjdQJlagKETksfi758o-hALcDcokcQczza3awqlbWi&amp;gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fposts%2Ftimmutoke_netflix-xready-player-me-im-excited-activity-7407832324232458243-7s38%3Futm_source%3Dshare%26utm_medium%3Dmember_desktop%26rcm%3DACoAABNXWCUBf3rS8sTWkjPFzNIRBIIJWRou888\" data-i13n=\"elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:LinkedIn;elmt:;cpos:2;pos:1\" data-original-link=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/timmutoke_netflix-xready-player-me-im-excited-activity-7407832324232458243-7s38?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAABNXWCUBf3rS8sTWkjPFzNIRBIIJWRou888\">shared in a LinkedIn post<\/a>. The acquisition is part of Netflix&#8217;s new games strategy, which puts an emphasis on approachable multiplayer titles and adaptations of the streaming service&#8217;s IP.<\/p>\n<p>Ready Player Me&#8217;s team of around 20 employees will be incorporated into Netflix&#8217;s staff, <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/12\/19\/netflix-acquires-gaming-avatar-maker-ready-player-me\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\"><em>TechCrunch<\/em> writes<\/a>, though T\u00f5ke is the only one of the startup&#8217;s four founders who will continue on after the acquisition. Neither company has shared when the avatar tech will be incorporated into Netflix&#8217;s games or what games will support the feature when they do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Besides designing its avatar system to be easy for developers to implement in their games, Ready Player Me&#8217;s big pitch for their system is using AI to automatically redesign avatars for different games&#8217; art styles and &#8220;automatically fit assets to any avatar rig or topology without manual work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Netflix has taken multiple different approaches\u00a0 to games in the last few years, but lately, the company has actively <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/netflix-has-closed-its-aaa-gaming-studio-133014946.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\">retreated from AAA development<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/netflix-is-getting-rid-of-another-of-its-game-studios-by-selling-it-back-to-its-founders-203645232.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:5;pos:1\">its more ambitious projects<\/a>. Other than the premiere of <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/best-guess-live-is-netflixs-take-on-hq-trivia-170000030.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:6;pos:1\">its take on HQ Trivia<\/a>, Netflix&#8217;s last few game announcements of 2025 were focused on a collection of <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/netflix-is-bringing-party-games-to-tvs-123034128.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:7;pos:1\">streamable party games<\/a>, and <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/the-first-post-ea-fifa-soccer-sim-will-be-a-netflix-games-exclusive-204321196.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:8;pos:1\">a partnership with FIFA<\/a> to release a new soccer sim in 2026. All of those projects could support avatars in one form or another, now Netflix just needs to decide how.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/netflix-is-acquiring-game-avatar-maker-ready-player-me-204443001.html?src=rss<\/p><p>Please credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\">OBA Blog<\/a> &raquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/netflix-is-acquiring-game-avatar-maker-ready-player-me\/\">Netflix is acquiring game avatar maker Ready Player Me<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix is acquiring Estonian startup Ready Player Me, a company creating &#8220;cross-game avatar tech&#8221; that allows players to bring their digital personas with them to different games, the company&#8217;s CEO Timmu T\u00f5ke shared in a LinkedIn post. The acquisition is part of Netflix&#8217;s new games strategy, which puts an emphasis on approachable multiplayer titles and adaptations of the streaming service&#8217;s IP. Ready Player Me&#8217;s team of around 20 employees will be incorporated into Netflix&#8217;s staff, TechCrunch writes, though T\u00f5ke is the only one of the startup&#8217;s four founders who will continue on after the acquisition. Neither company has shared when the avatar tech will be incorporated into Netflix&#8217;s games or what games will support the feature when they do.\u00a0 Besides designing its avatar system to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}