Netflix launches TV shows where you choose what happens
Puss In Book: Trapped In An Epic Tale will be the first title to feature the mechanic
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Your support makes all the difference.Netflix has announced the imminent release of interactive TV shows that allow viewers to choose how episodes unravel before them.
So far, Netflix has only announced children’s shows — aimed at ages six to 11 — that will have the feature, but the company has said the technology will be made more widely available in the future.
The first release, Puss In Book: Trapped In An Epic Tale, is a standalone adventure, a spin-off from The Adventures Of Puss In Boots, self a Shrek spin-off.
Snippets from the show are featured in a newly released trailer, which you can watch below, including choosing whether a group of bears are friends or foe.
With 13 different choices presented throughout, viewers can whip through the adventure in 18 minutes, while the longest root can take almost 40 minutes.
Following Puss, the next show to use the feature will be Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile, which follows a champion truck-racing dog buddy and his pal Darnell as they try out new ideas. Those watching will have eight different choices leading to four different endings.
Another show, titled Stretch Armstrong: The Breakout, is also in the works.
Carla Engelbrecht Fisher, director of product innovation at Netflix, told the Press Association of the new feature: "This project has taken two-and-a-half years, it's been a long time coming and it's all about how to make the members' experience better.
"Kids think everything is there to be interacted with so we took all those things and it was this great a-ha moment - we can put kids into the directors' seat and let them control the story.
"We have tested with kids as young as four but they often had younger siblings there and they all understand touch screens and they love that they get to choose and pick."
When asked whether the technology would be applied to shows for adults, Engelbrecht Fisher said: "We have built the tools to be able to offer this to our creators, who have stories to tell. It's all about the stories."
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