Czech hit Codenames heads to Netflix — but not for Czechs

The board game Codenames (Krycí jména), created by the Brno studio Czech Games Edition (CGE) and sold in more than 18 million copies worldwide, is coming to Netflix. The streaming giant is launching a Codenames: Party mode in test rollout on 29 September — though it is not yet available to Czech users.

The game runs online directly on the TV or in a supported browser, with a smartphone serving as the controller — no extra hardware is needed. According to CGE head Daniel Musil, the partnership with Netflix did not start with the streamer buying a ready-made licence, but came about by chance: Netflix was looking for suitable party games for a “couch” format with friends in the living room and stumbled upon the Czech game's mobile version. The team liked it so much that the two sides agreed to jointly develop a dedicated version.

The original Codenames was created by Czech author Vlaada Chvátil — a word game in which two team captains use one-word clues to steer their players toward the right words on the table. In 2016 the game won the prestigious German Spiel des Jahres award.

The Netflix version comes with a new party mode, developed jointly by the platform's American designers and CGE's digital team in Brno. There are no longer two fixed teams — each player comes up with a clue for their own combination of words on their phone while simultaneously guessing other players' combinations, so everyone stays continuously engaged without waiting for their turn. “We took what people love most about Codenames — the moment you come up with a brilliant word link — and let everyone in front of the screen enjoy that without downtime or waiting,” explains Petr Murmak, CGE's founder and co-owner.

Codenames: Party will also keep the classic team mode for 2–10 players and add a third mode, “Solve the Case,” for 1–10 participants with ready-made puzzles, where speed matters as much as getting the answer right.

Netflix has been gradually expanding its TV gaming lineup since 2023 — first testing in Canada and the UK, then adding other countries, with Brazil's turn coming this year. The company has already said it is betting on simple, social, smartphone-controlled games. If Netflix's cloud gaming ever reaches Czechia, CGE, according to Murmak, is ready to prepare a Czech translation — though neither company has yet named an exact launch date for Czechia.