Netflix Adding Video Game Rentals to its Newly Re-branded DVD Service

@shiro11 said:

Gamefly's wait times are beyond absurd so any competition that can do better is welcomed.

Agreed. I've signed up and dropped gamefly twice over a 4 year period just to see if it got any better. it didn't. Last I checked they had just 4 distribution centers in the country, while netflix and at least 1 or multiple ones in each state. So yes, competition is definitely welcome!

@Cubical said:

I fucking hate netflix gamefly anyway and would rather got to a fucking video store down the street in 5 minutes get a realk disc and Netflix picture quailty on streaming movies makes them look and sound like compreessed ass compared to the real bluray disc.

IT is the same fucking ass lossy comprssed sound that crap mp3 and mp4 did to music ruining cd sound quailty forever (and CD sound was starting to sound like ass by the time DVD audio and super audio CD came out) only netflix is making movies look and sound like ass this time.

and those fucking redboxes have a collection of ass crap movies only fucking punk kids and teens and clueless soccer moms would want to watch and every single one has nothing but trash compared to a old ass Real Video rental store,

Thanks for nothing and ruining film picture and sound quality netflix and red box you fuckers may i piss on your grave when you can no longer sustain this cheep ass price scheme you are using to get people to use your crap service.

Thousands of movies and tv shows to stream with low monthly price, the service literally has no rival in it's selection, but you still want more?

I'm willing to switch if they have faster ship times and are significantly cheaper. But I honestly don't think Qwikster will be much better when it comes to shipping new releases. New movies take 2 hours to watch while new games take 8 to 40 hours to beat. Qwikster will get backlogged like Gamefly.

For all you Gamefly people who complain about wait time, just put the one game in your queue that you really want and make sure you don't have any games out when it comes out. You will get the game right when it comes out. It may not maximize your game time, but it will maximize your quality of selection.

Sign me up as long it has faster shipping than Gamefly. Gamefly takes way to long to get games to me.

Good. Gamefly needs some competition. It's ridiculous that it took 10+ days to get a game from my queue after I send a game back. I was also shocked, SHOCKED if I got a game in the top 5 on my list. Even though they were all listed as "available now."

I don't know if Gamefly's improved at all over the years, but when I had an account a few years back, I could NEVER get any new-release games. Despite putting them at the top of my queue incredibly early, wayyy before the game was launched, I always ended up getting the games that nobody was renting anymore. It just wasn't worth it when the two games I received in the mail for a month were so old that I could buy them in full for about the same price as the monthly subscription.

Let's hope Quikster gets more copies of new release games for all of the people who want to rent them.

The one thing that I love about GameFly is the "keep it" option, I wished Netflix would do that for Blu-rays... Maybe now Netflix (ehem Qwikster) will offer the same for both. I have been spoiled with the idea of enjoying the game and wanting to keep it, it is annoying to not have that option for movies.

Not available in Canada? Not interested.

This is horrible news for all Netflix customers with both streaming and DVD/Blu-Ray services. In addition to splitting the names they're splitting the service into two websites with separate queues and ratings for each site. If you have a DVD in your queue and it becomes available for streaming you'll never know about it without searching manually on the streaming site and if you rate a movie on one site that won't be reflected in the other. Ridiculous.

I'm pretty excited about this actually. Gamefly seems to take about a week and a half or two weeks from when I send something back to when I get another game. Sure, I'm from the midwest which means I'm not very close to their distribution centers,(I think they only have 4 across the country) but for the price I'm paying I feel like it should be a lot quicker considering netflix only takes 3 days max. So I'll be glad to dump gamefly for 'qwikster'.

I had a Blockbuster by mail account and it was pretty awesome. Cheaper than Gamefly and no additional costs for Blu-ray movies, like Netflix. I could just rent any game or movie I wanted, it's not as fast as Netflix, but I didn't have any problems with it.

The ONLY thing that really sucks about Blockbuster is the delay between game releases and renting them. But I bought my PS3 last November and had a huge back catalog of games to rent, it was great for that.

Dropped the DVD by mail part of my subscription already, but game rentals has me interested. If this has a better turnaround rate than I had with Gamefly, I might be willing to get back onboard.

netflix had me, i used one movie a month, for 7.95 thats a ok deal. but one movie a month for 15.95 is a crap deal. and i hate you netflix i hate you.

I won't drop my Blu Ray plan until the streaming content is as large a library and as high quality an image. If the games are relatively cheap, sure.

Gamefly sucked ass though.

I haven't rented anything in years, and I stopped using Netflix way before they even had streaming content, so my knowledge of that industry's shenanigans is fairly relegated to big (and old) news like Blockbuster going belly-up and trying to dress its rotting corpse of a business model. Until this article, I was under the assumption that Netflix was fine, not in such a bad way that it needed re-branding.

Still, renting out games seems like a no-brainer for a major media rental service, and I always found it strange that Netflix streamed on consoles but didn't provide games. Now that Netflix or Qwikster or whatever stupid SEO bullshit name they want to go with rents games, it should be good for their company and the customers (since Gamefly will have to compete).

I wonder if Google will dabble in media mail renting.

Can somebody explain how a name changes service? For gods sake, how long do we have to have these stupid reactions to names that nobody will carry for more than a month.

You know what, I'm glad everybody hates Netflix and Qwikster. After using Gamefly and having an awful experience because of the complete lack of availability of any game you'd want to play, I'll be more than happy if people don't jump on. That'll mean more games for me while you clowns are crying about a fucking name.

I really wish people would start being specific when referenecing Netflix. Its not just a US service anymore. So it would be nice to specify if both are getting it or not.

Might get it, if I weren't so hopelessly poor. Bahoo hoo hoo!

So are Qwickster and Netflix going to have separate subscription fees?

And shouldn't the titles be switched as streaming a movie is much more "Qwick" than waiting for a DVD in the mail.

I put my subscription "on hold". Hopefully they will figure out what the fuck is going on with this company before too long.

if the game plans are reasonably priced i could see doing Blu-Ray and games by mail. I really like netflix's reliability and speed over gamefly.

@Cubical said:

I fucking hate netflix gamefly anyway and would rather got to a fucking video store down the street in 5 minutes get a realk disc and Netflix picture quailty on streaming movies makes them look and sound like compreessed ass compared to the real bluray disc.

IT is the same type of thing fucking ass lossy comprssed sound that crap mp3 and mp4 did to music ruining cd sound quailty forever (and CD sound was starting to sound like ass by the time DVD audio and super audio CD came out) only netflix is making movies look and sound like ass this time.

and those fucking redboxes have a collection of ass crap movies only fucking punk kids and teens and clueless soccer moms would want to watch and every single one has nothing but trash compared to a old ass Real Video rental store,

Thanks for nothing and ruining film picture and sound quality netflix and red box you fuckers may i piss on your grave when you can no longer sustain this cheep ass price scheme you are using to get people to use your crap service.

If I still lived where I used to I might agree with you, but I can't just walk to a video rental store as there are none near me, anymore. Netflix streaming has ups and downs.. I would never ever use it for a movie like Iron Man or etc because, as you said, the video/audio will not stand up to the blu-ray. Having said that, it's great for casual viewing, revisiting tv shows on a lunch break or etc and the instant gratification. To be honest, i've only had a big tv and surround sound for 5 years.. prior to that i had an old (small) crt + vhs and I was perfectly happy watching films that way. Obviously there is a difference, and I'm not saying they are equivalent. I see the streaming as a great supplement, but not something I would exclusively have at this time when quality has not caught up. The reason people are being forced to make a choice now is because of the price changes and the upcoming split of services.

Regarding the dvd service, you haven't said much so I won't go into there.

Re: redbox... completely useless for constant movie watching, and uneconomical for such an endeavour. It is, however, useful for impulse rentals, though the selection is all over the place.

gamefly is a good idea on paper. hopefully netflix can improve the speed over gamefly. I would pay for that.

Qwikster? Really? That has got to be one of the worst names I have ever heard.

Despite the crappy name change, if they can get newer games to me quicker at a decent/lower price, I might be switching from gamefly.

Congrats to Alex Navarro. I didn't realize this was his writing til I got to the blazed up Elmo bit. He must be getting better.

hopefully netflix can do better than gamefly in terms of speed, I never stay with gamefly past the first trial month because I got tired of shipping my games out on Tuesday and then my next game arriving 6 days later on Monday, ridiculous.

I'm not sure how this will affect my Gamefly. If the "Qwikster" game selection is good, and I get the games the day after they are shipped, like I do with movies that will be very tempting. On the other hand, I have no problem with Gamefly, and I can keep the games I want for a decent discount...usually can get brand new games for around 40 bucks.

@Vigorousjammer said:

I don't know if Gamefly's improved at all over the years, but when I had an account a few years back, I could NEVER get any new-release games. Despite putting them at the top of my queue incredibly early, wayyy before the game was launched, I always ended up getting the games that nobody was renting anymore. It just wasn't worth it when the two games I received in the mail for a month were so old that I could buy them in full for about the same price as the monthly subscription.

Let's hope Quikster gets more copies of new release games for all of the people who want to rent them.

Then you shouldn't have had those old games in your queue. All I keep in my queue are games that have not been released yet. Gears 3 shipped to me today. I also got Resistance 3, Space Marine, Catherine, Deus Ex, and every other new release game shipped to me on the day of their release.

@Dagbiker said:

netflix had me, i used one movie a month, for 7.95 thats a ok deal. but one movie a month for 15.95 is a crap deal. and i hate you netflix i hate you.

The cheapest plan on Netflix is 4.99. You are limited to 2 rentals a month with that, and 2 hours of streaming on a PC/MAC(no other devices allowed), which should be fine for you if you really just want one movie a month.

Am I the only person who doesn't care about the name? It's not like it affects the service at all.

If games work like Blu Ray movies, as they said they would, Qwikster could potentially have a $7 per month, limit 2 titles per month Service (Which is Netflix's $4.99 Limited Plan + the Blu Ray Fee, which iirc is $2 bucks)

Even their standard plan + blu ray right now is $10 I believe, so it's already much more reasonable than GameFly's 16.95

But I've been pretty happy with Redbox, just played through Space Marine for $2.17

The Qwikster service sounds interesting, with the games and all, but I'll stick to streaming. The name is really dumb too.

fuck netflix, i never have trouble getting new release gamefly games, you just gotta know how to play the gamefly game

Thanks to that caption, I can now only see a vagina when I look at the curtains.
 
edit: I have a feeling the separation/rebranding of the disc service is to make it easier to get the Netflix service overseas.

@slowbird: Branding definitely effects it. If it was called shitdiscs: the services that shits disks to you. Then ppl will definitely have a problem with that and that would hurt them. Now if it becomes an awesome service that despite its name, is successful, then the name does not matter, because it transcended it.

Best real example, the nintendo Wii. Wii was considered soooo dumb, but now no one cares.

hopefully it'll be competition for Gamefly so, lower prices faster shipping = consumer win

I have to read this article later, because I'm about to go play soccer n I got stug by a fucken bee.

Gamefly has been good to me the last couple years so I'll probably stick with them... Well, unless "Quikster" has some amazing deal.

Is @Qwikster a drug dealer?

Anyway, I think it's all about price points. If GameFly is considerably cheaper then I'll retain it, if not then I rather get games AND movies from Qwikster.

Unless they make it so that you can only have one movie OR one game out at a time...

@super2j: Yeah, dumb names can hurt profits. I'm just saying, Qwikster doesn't seem as dumb as everyone is making it out to be. It even kinda fits the same weird-spelled style as the Netflix name.

I was an early adopter to Gamefly when they still only had one shipping center and I enjoyed it quite a bit. When they expanded the games got here quicker but they were usually the 10th -15th game on my list and if I removed all but the top 3-5 I would end up not getting a game for a month. I have tried to go back 2 or 3 times but it is the same problems time and time again.

@sopranosfan said:

if I removed all but the top 3-5 I would end up not getting a game for a month.

That was my experience with Gamefly as well, and thus I dropped them a while ago. Good they'll have competition, but I've already dropped Netflix too. Don't miss either one of them.

@dangeRUSS04 said:

i never have trouble getting new release gamefly games, you just gotta know how to play the gamefly game

If it was a quality service, customers wouldn't have to learn how to game the system just to get it to work as advertised. Gamefly's model is broken, and hopefully some competition will prompt them to improve it.

@Brad said:

I'm all the way in

Time for a Brad Cum Face memegen?

I was listening to news radio on the way home from the cabin and analysts consider NetFlix financial commiting suicide with the rate hike and service split. I entirely agree.

that twitter account is hilarious

Switch from Gamefly to Qwickster? You folks need to stop supporting either! Dead model. So surprised Netflix is jumping into this so late.

So http://twitter.com/#!/Qwikster2 which one of you was it that did this?

No need.

Ive had Gamefly for years ive had no trouble getting old games. They also always ship out new games a day before their actual release date so i either get new games the day they come out or a day after they came out. Don't think Netflix will do the same. They can't even get their digital library straight its atrocious.

How every single release has been for me. Maybe Gamefly just love me

Yes you read correctly, they shipped Dead Island to me 3 days before its release date. Then again i don't just add games to my Q when they are about to come out. If i think i want a game in the future it sits in the Q. Perhaps that has helped me who knows.

I have Gamefly account and I almost never use it. I also haven't used Netflix' DVD mail-in for ever. I'll probably put my Gamefly account on hold or cancel it altogether.

I hate Gamefly with a passion so Qwikster, pot smoking Elmo or not, will get my biz.

@risseless said:

@sopranosfan said:

if I removed all but the top 3-5 I would end up not getting a game for a month.

That was my experience with Gamefly as well, and thus I dropped them a while ago. Good they'll have competition, but I've already dropped Netflix too. Don't miss either one of them.

^this