Netflix Takes Over Ready Player Me, a Pioneer in Gaming Avatars

In a strategic move, Netflix has acquired Ready Player Me, a company specializing in gaming avatars, for an undisclosed amount. According to TechCrunch, the Estonian startup's team will be joining the streaming giant, while the company itself will cease operations on January 31, 2026. Only one of Ready Player Me's founders, chief technology officer Rainer Selvet, will be making the transition to Netflix. The timeline for integrating Ready Player Me's avatar technology into Netflix's platform remains unclear. This acquisition will enable Netflix users to create avatars that can be used across multiple games. Founded in 2013 by Selvet, Haver Järveoja, Kaspar Tiri, and Timmu Tõke, Ready Player Me has secured $72 million in investment to date, including funding from a16z. In a LinkedIn post, Ready Player Me's CEO, Timmu Tõke, expressed his company's intention to contribute to Netflix's gaming strategy with their cross-game avatar technology. "Our team will be joining Netflix to contribute to their gaming strategy with our cross-game avatar tech, enabling players to carry their identities and fandom across games," Tõke wrote. "We started the company 12 years ago with Rainer, Kaspar, and Haver. We were 20-year-olds from small towns in Estonia. We knew nothing about tech or startups, but were obsessed with avatars. Over the last 12 years, we have built many different products around avatars, from hardware scanners to personal avatar tech and eventually launching Ready Player Me more than 5 years ago. I’m very proud of the work we did with Ready Player Me, pushing cross-game interoperability further than anyone else before and serving thousands of developers." Netflix has been expanding its gaming offerings over the past few years, initially acquiring studios and establishing AAA developers. However, under Alain Tascan's leadership, the company has shifted its focus away from new game development. Recently, Netflix sold Spry Fox back to its founders. In early December, Netflix announced its intention to acquire Warner Bros for $82.7 billion, while rival Paramount Skydance has initiated a hostile takeover deal valuing the company at $108.4 billion for all of Warner Bros Discovery. Netflix has downplayed the significance of Warner Bros' games division in the larger context.