Netflix's DVD division renamed 'Qwikster,' adds games-by-mail

@TheyDidItFirst As long as I don't have to do anything horribly obnoxious on my end then I don't have a real problem with it.

@Danthaman

Well, I considered "paying twice as much" to be "horribly obnoxious," which is why I canceled, but I may be in the minority.

@Fullmetal Salchemist

I think paying twice as much is in response to the USPS closing and shipping rates going sky high as they start FedExing all your DVDs

@TheyDidItFirst
No kidding, the whole time I was reading this I was asking myself one question: WHY?

There seems to be no purpose whatsoever....This is going to make it so much more complicated to get my DVDs. =/

@TheyDidItFirst i actually think it's a really smart move. they saw that physical dvd's were starting to lose them money and they spun it off so that when that ship sinks, it wont bring down the rest of netflix with it

@TheyDidItFirst

This sounds so insanely stupid I can only hope it's a hoax.

@TheyDidItFirst

And what pray tell, is exactly so mismanaged about Netflix's situation?


1 - Is it that Hollywood is trying to run them out of business, or force Netflix to charge significantly more for the content, by pulling their content from Netflix, and starving Netflix to a slow death? Like how two weeks ago, Starz just announced they defecting, and alone represent the largest content provider on Netflix.

2 - Is it broadband providers like Comcast trying to run Netflix out of business by denying Netflix users access to Netflix streaming service across their networks . . . unless of course Netflix pays their ransom (a lot more), because Netflix is a direct threat to streaming services like Xfinity, which the broadband services provide themselves?

3 - Is it the USPS, which Netflix relies almost exclusively until recently, is pretty much going belly up, and as a result, is taking Netflix down with it?

4 - Is it no one gives a shit about DVDs any more, and blu-rays are not catching on anywhere near fast enough to replace the fiscal viability of DVD rental? Once again, something that threatens to destroy Netflix, as like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video before it, the popularity of the brand wanes as the popularity of disc media wanes?

5 - Or maybe it's Netflix's "loyal" customers, who despite every month reading some new headline about how much larger forces than Netflix are trying to erase Netflix from the face of the Earth, show their loyalty and devotion to Netflix, but canceling their Netflix accounts, every time Netflix desperate to keep the company in business so they can continue to serve their "loyal" customers, makes some change that will help them weather all the attacks from so many other larger companies trying to put them out of business?

You know, I think I will do that too. I'll cancel my Netflix account, help them go out of business faster, so other companies like Comcast, Starz, Viacom, etc. can charge me more, a lot more, for all the same content. And then one day in the next few years, when internet streaming costs as much as cable TV does now, I can smile with the knowledge that I was part of bigger than myself; I was part of the "loyal" Netflix fans who helped destroy something good, just like the greedy Hollywood studios and greedy broadband service providers wanted me to.

@Tachyonic Cargo
A. Men.

I am one of the reasons that Starz is pulling their content away from Netflix. I've cut Cable/Satellite out of my monthly expenses, ad am saving a healthy bit of change because of it.Granted, most of the TV shows I watch are pretty far behind what's on live television (not including the series that are on OTA channels) but I don't feel like I NEED to be that current with what's on TV.

I want the content providers to license their content at a reasonable rate to (a service like) Netflix - or allow me to subscribe to a show per season, a la Zune/iTunes. I could be just fine with simply using Zune Marketplace, but some of the pricing is just silly. $20 for Total Recall (HD)? Today? No thanks.

@TheyDidItFirst

I thought for a minute that they might re-think their new pricing system after all of the bad press, the subscriber uproar, and the drop in stock prices. I guess I underestimated the true scope of the dickery of the people in charge at Netflix.

Oh, and great job shooting the public service announcement in what looks like a strip-mall food court. It really says to the consumer "We're going to totally screw you over and then hit the Jamba Juice."

@Fullmetal Salchemist I consider a price hike obnoxious too. But they already hiked the price up 2 months ago. If they just split the price in half for both services, then I don't really care.

@Tachyonic Cargo I have to disagree with most of your points. The way I see it, Netflix became the company they are because of disc rentals, streaming was something added much later. I and many others still prefer discs to streaming, but Netflix got very greedy and decided that discs weren't good enough and wanted to force everyone to streaming. This move is the final stage of that, a genius strategy that has seen the company stock plunge by 50% since they announced this scheme. I will be canceling soon with this nonsense, their disc service has gotten awful lately as you can tell they have basically stopped buying discs.

@Tachyonic Cargo

oh God, you made so many good points but then you had to go be a fcuking douchebag at the end.

first of all stop referring us as "loyal" because some of us may not be "loyal" to a corporation that sends us DVD over the mail. second, where do you come off trying to tell people whats really going to happen when you can't even promise me thats how its gonna go down.

I cancelled my DVD shipment because i think 15 dollars wasn't worth it, will i cancel my insta streaming? maybe... Starz just pulled out so basically all i have now is TV streaming which i can go to Hulu+ for and get a better selection.

screw you and your self righteous attitude. Its MY money and i can do with MY money as i damn well please, just like everyone here, who cares if they choose Blockbuster or RedBox, apparently only uptight arseholes who still doesn't get his precious DVD rental company is actually a faceless corporation with absolutely no "loyalty" for their costumers

tl;dr - go shove your self righteous attitude and your DVDs up your...

@Tachyonic Cargo

Well then netflix is just as dead to me as cable is and I'm not going to pay for either while weak-willed people like yourself cave in and pay for the cheapest available option.

you can blame the studios and blame the post office but ultimately the customer has the final say. If you choose to support this or support cable. you are telling them that it's ok, and you agree with their decisions.

@ytilanigiroon The thing that makes the Starz situation so ridiculous (btw, the 90s called, they want their "z" back) is that Netflix offered them $300 million for a new deal. Given that there are something around 27 million Netflix streamers, it basically worked out to $12 a user for Starz. And yet Starz held back because the going rate for their cable service is about $15. That seemed petty to me, especially coming from a third-rate movie channel very few people watch.

@Tachyonic Cargo it was mismanaged because they doubled the price without any explanation, acted like douche bags when asked by the press, and thought they were top shit like people should consider themselves lucky to be netflix subscribers. They said they planned on losing millions of subscribers and if I didnt know any better they WANTED to lose millions of subscribers, the management of the price increase was so horribly handled that the fallout seemed intentional.

To summarize their price increase announcement "We're splitting DVDs and streaming so now you have to pay double. Heres the cancellation link."

@Tachyonic Cargo

This whole thing shows signs of mismanagement, just look at the video above with the CEO apologizing directly to the customers.

@Tachyonic Cargo

All of your points have nothing to do with the way this whole thing was managed.

Yes, plenty of companies have their eyes set on Netflix, but the way Netflix handled their price hike is shooting themselves in the foot. If Netflix goes bye-bye, it will be because of their own stupidity, not a case of the bigger fish eating the smaller one.

If Netflix had just been up-front and honest with their customers, saying that it's becoming increasingly more expensive to offer this type of content and that we'll have to split our service in two, then I'm sure most of their customers would have been understanding. Many still would have been upset, but it would not have been as big a deal as it was.

Also, when you look at it, Netflix was only jacking the price up for their most loyal customers - the ones that have streaming and the DVD service. And.... that's a problem.

@Cranky Penguin

I think this whole thing is terrible, not because of netflix or qwikster, but because of the widespread panic attacks. basically it's like the recession, it's a mental thing. people create the negative circumstances by all of their negative attitudes. before you know it qwikster is a bad company, they don't buy discs anymore, their quality is shoddy.

i wish people weren't so stupid. live with the changes and roll with it. but NO, they have to go out and attack netflix. Hey lets make no mistake, greedy is the definition that if you look it up you'll see the likes of STARZ listed in the page.

@cjrosa6

Gamestop would probably cancel their Qwikster subscription

@jrr

ITT Malloryisms

@Samuelthegeek

Nobody knows that part yet. They haven't released pricing information and the Qwikster web site hasn't gone live yet.

If Qwikster is cheaper than Gamefly while also having the same kind of large library I'll definitely give them a try.

@GMUHistorian Blockbuster is cheaper and has a lot more shipping centers then gamefly, so if you can deal with a 3 month delay before you can rent a new release it a good service. Though with gamefly you'll be waiting anyways.

@GMUHistorian

I can guarantee it won't be cheaper if they want to even match Gamefly. Games are expensive, it will take hundreds of millions to build up to Gamefly's catalog.

@robokai - Unless you are one of the people that gets games on release day... someone has to. I'd say my success rate is maybe 50% in terms of whether or not I'll get a game on launch day.

Generally speaking, I only have an account for maybe 3 months out of the year. I play the new releases I don't want to buy, and then I cancel the account before I need to pay for another month. I supplement that with rentals from redbox, whenever they have one of the new games I want to play (any game that can be finished in a single day is a good deal from redbox at $2 a day. Finish in one day, and you're golden).

There is no reason to go back to blockbuster.

@Sponge
The problem is that Gamefly is a used-game seller disguised as a rental company. I don't think it would be that hard to reach their stock levels because Gamefly is constantly cannibalizing their own stock.

@GMUHistorian The letter explaining this specifically said there will be no pricing change. So yes we do know this, assuming we read the letter.

@Samuelthegeek If you currently have both DVDs and streaming, the total price for both will remain the same, it will just be two separate charges instead of one.

@kamikit Yea it is. I've seen 250 episodes subbed. The Sub is 1000+ better.

@kamikit YES

@kamikit
Afro gunsou!

@Boring K

They were going to do this no matter what the customer reaction was.

@Boring K
Yeah, they should be totally happy because their cheap, convenient service turned into two less cheap, less convenient services.

@CaramelZappa

I don't see how it's less convenient, but even paying for both services at this period-in-time is less than the average price of a DVD.

@Zacmanman

Now you have two separate sites to manage your que. Two seperate bills. Want to watch something? Search for it on netflix to see if it's streaming. If it isn't, you don't just click add to dvd que. You have to log in to another site and search for it all over again. And I didn't say it wasn't cheap, but it's still almost twice the price as it used to be for both services.

@CaramelZappa - That is the problem exactly. Well stated.

@Silent Ice

If anything they've simplified things by making two separate companies with two separate payment schemes and pricing options.

I mean, it'd be nice if all of this went under the name netlfix with one payment but the audience is increasingly different for DVDs and streaming.

@Zacmanman

"If anything they've simplified things by making two separate companies with two separate payment schemes and pricing options."

lolwut.

@Haizeus

I'll hazard a guess that that was sarcasm, if it wasn't then... mind = blown.

Goodbye Netflix, you were fun while you weren't going insane.