“Charting the Future of Monument Valley: Netflix’s Vision Unveiled”
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It’s clear that you will not be able to experience Monument Valley 3 unless you possess an active Netflix subscription. This means that if your subscription lapses at any point, your access to the game might get revoked. I understand you are aware of this fact – I know you might be more than familiar with how subscription services function – but it’s a new predicament for Monument Valley, a franchise that has never before been restricted by a subscription model.
Monument Valley 1 and 2 were premium mobile titles that you paid five pounds for, allowing you to keep the game on your mobile device indefinitely. This was a significant part of their charm: they were perpetual games you could install, play, and subsequently forget about, only to revisit whenever you desired – perhaps when you needed a break or wanted to escape somewhere calm and comforting. These were games where you could rotate through impossible worlds filled with intricate designs until you lost yourself in them. However, that is not the case with Monument Valley 3, which requires a Netflix subscription. This is a substantial shift for a game packed with essential innovations, as I discovered during my visit to Ustwo’s office in London.
The office is a stylishly renovated warehouse, featuring hefty slabbed walls, cozy furnishings, and an abundance of natural light flooding in. The walls showcase vibrant artifacts from Ustwo Games’ journey thus far – souvenirs collected while developing titles like Assemble with Care, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, Desta: The Memories Between, and, of course, Monument Valley, the series that initiated it all. Launched in 2014, Monument Valley catapulted Ustwo Games, a branch of the larger digital production company Ustwo, into the spotlight, earning the studio a BAFTA award (on display on the shelf) and global acclaim. The game even appeared in an episode of the US political series House of Cards, with celebrities like Ariana Grande, using her extensive reach and influence, expressing enthusiasm about it on social media. Monument Valley is indeed the lifeblood of the studio, and this third installment is now just a week away from release, seven years after Monument Valley 2.
There’s the new game director Jennifer Estaris, who joined in 2021 to assist in crafting Monument Valley 2’s expansion, The Lost Forest, which thematically shares much with Monument Valley 3. There’s also new lead designer Emily Brown, who played a vital role in the studio’s top-rated Alba game, which we praised in our Alba review. We also have new lead artist Lily Ibrahim, who came on board in 2020, new lead producer John Lau, who joined in 2021, and recent composer Lucie Treacher, who started in 2023. The message is quite clear – reiterated in a presentation just in case I missed it: this is a fresh, diverse team grounded in multiculturalism. Or as CCO Danny Grey aptly stated to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year, “[It’s] also not just a group of guys, which is what Monument Valley 1 was.”
This is significant because, through these new individuals, fresh perspectives have arrived in Monument Valley 3, and these new focus points help it feel somewhat different from the previous installments. However, do not misunderstand me; it undeniably remains true to the essence of Monument Valley, a game centered on shifting architectural landscapes to revisit pathways and uncover impossible routes through its puzzles – much like reconfiguring the surreal walkways in an MC Escher artwork to guide a character through.
One of the most apparent transformations is the theme, which heavily draws from the natural environment and aims to improve it amidst a climate-driven crisis. This theme resonates profoundly within the studio, which is never shy about advocating its admirable values.
“`B Corp certification acknowledges a company for achieving exceptional standards in social and environmental effectiveness, clarity, and responsibility, in accordance with B Corp’s web principles. This topic also resonates with several members of my team, Estaris Integrated, a participant in the Playing for the Planet Alliance, which organizes the Green Game Jam and is committed to instigating sustainability changes throughout the gaming industry. In terms of gameplay, this brings a theme of nature versus architecture, where flora grows and intertwines with structures, introducing curves and organic forms to the sharp angles we have previously enjoyed.
Yet, it undeniably introduces new mechanics, the most significant being the ability to hop into a small boat and drift around its world—a unique traversal feature unlike anything we’ve experienced in the series before. By keeping your finger pressed on the screen, you can navigate a tiny boat, sailing wherever you choose—typically to one of the numerous islands that present various puzzles or a collection of challenges. This offers a liberating experience, especially considering the tight constraints the series is known for.
Additionally, there is a noticeable shift in visuals and sound—the feeling of a grander and more global presence. The game’s color palette carries a pastel warmth, coupled with a freshly rolling sea and an abundance of gameplay possibilities that its arrival entails. Trecher’s inclusion in the music team and her expertise in orchestration and diverse instrumentation have significantly broadened the range of music you will encounter. One section referenced while I was present involved an origami level, where platforms fold and unfold around you as you rotate the screen, producing delicate paper-crunching sounds and soft rustling as you move about. It’s minimalist, beautiful, and emits a crayon-rich tone. It’s elegantly stunning.
However, underlying all these outward changes is a much more profound transformation happening behind the scenes of Monument Valley 3’s development, specifically Ustwo’s partnership with their new publishing ally, Netflix Games. This has altered how Monument Valley 3 will be released—you can also access it from the Google Play and App Stores, but you will need to log into your Netflix account to play. The exciting aspect, however, is how it will be sustained after release. This will function as a live service game of sorts, but not in an exploitative way. Additional content will be rolled out for at least a year post-launch in the form of seasonal puzzles and narrative chapters, and there will be no cost for it—an added benefit of being part of a subscription service. That said, the duration of this additional support depends on how well the game performs; it is somewhat of an experiment.
So, why choose Netflix? Well, quite frankly, Monument Valley 3 likely would not exist without Netflix’s support. As Estaris remarks after a brief pause: “We could talk a bit about the game industry and its current state…” She doesn’t elaborate, nor does she need to; layoffs in the industry have been rampant and widely reported over the last year or two, although Ustwo has remained stable. “I think this raises a question regarding the health of the premium mobile industry,” she continues, to which I respond by asking how the high-end mobile sector is faring. She chuckles. “It’s not doing very well,” she replies.
Lead producer John Lau expands on this: “If we assess the current landscape of mobile gaming, I don’t believe the original Monument Valley could survive [today] if it were simply offered as a premium experience with a price tag of, what, 4.99.” The alternative could be a free-to-play Monument Valley title with in-app purchases, but that’s not a business model Ustwo is interested in pursuing. “A Monument Valley game in a free-to-play environment would not resemble a Monument Valley game,” Lau asserts. Thus, Netflix has become a viable option.
This is not a novel collaboration for the studio: their earlier game Desta was also a partnership with Netflix, which incidentally also released on Steam and Nintendo Switch seven months later, though there are no additional platform