Jump to offer an on-demand subscription indie games service

Step away now if you’re tired of hearing the term the Netflix of games”.

A new on-demand games service called Jump is on the way that will offer users access to a library of between 60 and 100 indie games for $9.99 a month. You could call it ‘the Netflix of Indie Games’ if you liked.

Supported formats include Windows, Mac, Linux and, interestingly, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Confirmed titles include The Bridge and Teslagrad.

IGN reports that Jump will include a number of Netflix style library browsing features, with lists of recently added games or games similar to other titles you have played. Leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves, matchmaking and multiplayer are all handled via a third-party service called PlayFab. This will also allow users to continue playing from where they left off on another device.

Developers will be paid according to the amount of time users spend playing their titles, with estimates suggesting the rate will be around 25-50 cents per hour. The company points out that this addresses the problem of Steam refunds, with devs being guaranteed payment for all time played.

Jump also argues that its curated catalogue will mean that all titles will get their fair share of attention from the platform.

We want this to be the logical next step in the life cycle of content,” CEO Anthony Palma said. If you think about the parallel to the movie industry, a movie goes on premium sales through theaters and when those sales start to dip off, they look at other avenues and eventually end up at a subscription service, like HBO or Netflix or wherever. That doesn’t exist in gaming right now, and particularly not for indies.

We work with developers specifically to make sure they’re bringing their game to us in the right time in their life cycle. We want them to run their premium sale cycle on Steam or Xbox or wherever, and once those sales dip off to a certain point, then it’s a better time to bring it over to us.”