Netflix May Offer Game Service

Netflix will be undergoing some key changes, including the particular separation of the DVD-by-mail and buffering services into a couple of separate brands, plus the addition of videogame leases.

In a new post and accompanying video clip, Netflix CEO and also co-founder Reed Hastings apologized for the recent changes built to the service. (Particularly, the price with the service increased for anyone with plans in which to send them discs and offer streaming access). This is part of a go on to separate the couple of businesses; it's very evident that streaming could be the future and Netflix have to get away from the mailing service, and it's really making a big step up that direction by breaking over DVD-by-mail service and also renaming it Qwikster.

In accordance with Hastings, this is "because it refers to quick delivery,"  though most will likely think it's just a horrible name. (Some would certainly even say it really is sabotaging that part of the business so that you can drive customers from what is now the particular streaming-only Netflix). Qwikster will probably be hosted on an alternative website -- the particular soon-to-launch Qwikster.com -- and will be a separate charge on your credit card from Netflix itself. Pricing, however, will not change, so if you're getting DVDs and streaming now, you'll still be able to do the same at no additional cost; there will simply be two separate charges that add up to the same total as now.

Because the two sites are increasingly being run independently of just one another, any ratings or perhaps reviews you leave using one service will never be reflected on one other, and the same is true of any changes you make in your account's e-mail deal with or billing details.

On the plus-side regarding gamers, Qwikster will begin to offer videogames for Xbox, PlayStation 3, and also Wii. This will surely cost an additional payment, which is weighed against the added fee for access to Blu-ray discs, although exact price payment wasn't specified.

That is not good news regarding GameFly, the preeminent game-by-mail rental service in America. The new Qwikster service will definitely lose many customers inside the transition (because it already has considered that the price changes have been made earlier come early July), but it will still have an amazing subscriber base that may suddenly be given the choice to pay extra for usage of games. For several, that will be more attractive than registering for a separate program like GameFly, although the latter does hold the added benefit of experiencing dealt with game titles for longer and also offering games regarding more platforms. In addition, it will begin stepping into the PC game titles space thanks partly to its latest purchase of Direct2Drive, giving it another solution to distinguish itself coming from Qwikster's game products.

"For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming," Hastings wrote so as to explain why it really is pushing streaming thus hard "Most companies that are great at something -- like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores -- do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. 

Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly."

"Some members will likely feel that we shouldn't split the businesses, and that we shouldn't rename our DVD by mail service," he continued. "Our view is with this split of the businesses, we will be better at streaming, and we will be better at DVD by mail. It is possible we are moving too fast -- it is hard to say. But going forward, Qwikster will continue to run the best DVD by mail service ever, throughout the United States. Netflix will offer the best streaming service for TV shows and movies, hopefully on a global basis. The additional streaming content we have coming in the next few months is substantial, and we are always working to improve our service further."

Netflix streaming is available on quite a few gaming devices including Xbox, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii console, and 3DS.