Cozy Grove studio Spry Fox now belongs to Netflix
Spry Fox, the Seattle-based developer of games including Triple Town, Road Not Taken, and Cozy 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 Cook said. "After many heartfelt conversations, we are all excited about joining Netflix as an in-house game studio and building amazing games together."
In a separate post, 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."
Netflix announced its intention to get into gaming in 2021, and Spry Fox will be its sixth in-house development studio. Netflix's focus was primarily on mobile gaming at the outset, but it's also indicated an interest in bigger and better things, most recently saying that it is "seriously exploring" a move into cloud gaming.