Were you looking forward to renting games via Netflix? Bad news

When Netflix's CEO announced the renaming/new company that was Qwikster, he also promised that it would start shipping videogames as well as Movies for the first time ever. Well, qwikster didn't work out so well, and with that news, came the questioning of the fate that is videogame renting through the company. It was in limbo since then, but all predictions pointed to Netflix expanding to gaming. Today Netflix squashed hopes in it's announcement. Were any of you looking forward to this, or even knew it was going to happen? I can't say I am surprised, Netflix barely acts like it wants to ship even movies nowadays, focusing all of their efforts on building a digital streaming powerhouse.

Not really. It's easier to just order games on Amazon and have them at my door a day or two later. All I want from Netflix is a massive selection of content to stream, if they can continue to manage and improve that despite the pig-headedness of the television and movie industry.

@Branthog said:

Not really. It's easier to just order games on Amazon and have them at my door a day or two later. All I want from Netflix is a massive selection of content to stream, if they can continue to manage and improve that despite the pig-headedness of the television and movie industry.

Wait, you'd rather just buy every game than rent it?

I was looking forward to it so I could drop Gamefly and just have my accounts tied to one source...

@Anthony said:

@Branthog said:

Not really. It's easier to just order games on Amazon and have them at my door a day or two later. All I want from Netflix is a massive selection of content to stream, if they can continue to manage and improve that despite the pig-headedness of the television and movie industry.

Wait, you'd rather just buy every game than rent it?

That's what I do. Amazon will have everything at my door on release day or overnight if I randomly decide I want something.

Renting is a hassle. That's why I cancelled Gamefly so quickly.

Renting only makes sense if you're on a budget.

I too would rather buy the games I want to play instead of renting them. I had Gamefly for awhile and ended up getting rid of it because I was spending more money to buy games from them than I cared to do. Renting games just cost too much when I'm probably going to buy it anyways.

@bizsumpark182 said:

I too would rather buy the games I want to play instead of renting them. I had Gamefly for awhile and ended up getting rid of it because I was spending more money to buy games from them than I cared to do. Renting games just cost too much when I'm probably going to buy it anyways.

Gamefly is amazing when systems launch though, because there a lot of games that are just not good enough to buy, but you want to play things on a new system, so renting a lot of games at once is a good choice.

@Rolyatkcinmai said:

@Anthony said:

@Branthog said:

Not really. It's easier to just order games on Amazon and have them at my door a day or two later. All I want from Netflix is a massive selection of content to stream, if they can continue to manage and improve that despite the pig-headedness of the television and movie industry.

Wait, you'd rather just buy every game than rent it?

That's what I do. Amazon will have everything at my door on release day or overnight if I randomly decide I want something.

Renting is a hassle. That's why I cancelled Gamefly so quickly.

Renting only makes sense if you're on a budget.

Plus, I don't have to deal with the time delay of the games going back and forth, feel compelled to finish that particular one in a time frame, deal with scratches, deal with DLC/pass codes/whatever. It'd be great if it was a much cheaper endeavor, but renting has always seemed like a bit of a hassle, to me. If I were on a tight budget, I'd definitely do it because it's better than no games. . . but with all the deals and credits Amazon has, it doesn't turn out too bad. Especially on the games you can wait a few months for.

That's just me, though. For a lot of people it makes more financial sense to rent, based on their disposable income (or more sensible care with their money) and/or their gaming style. That said, if something like OnLive worked perfectly and had a massive catalog of all old and new stuff and I could get unlimited access to everything for like $60/mo, I'd be just fine doing that, instead.

@Mb246 said:

@bizsumpark182 said:

I too would rather buy the games I want to play instead of renting them. I had Gamefly for awhile and ended up getting rid of it because I was spending more money to buy games from them than I cared to do. Renting games just cost too much when I'm probably going to buy it anyways.

Gamefly is amazing when systems launch though, because there a lot of games that are just not good enough to buy, but you want to play things on a new system, so renting a lot of games at once is a good choice.

Meh, I'd still rather just buy the games. If I'm not sure I want to play them then I'll either: a) wait for the price to go down before I buy, b) not get the new system at launch if there doesn't appear to be any good games c) buy the games anyways and if they are bad enough just trade them back into Amazon.

I appreciate the picture had DiRT 3 as the game.

@Knetic2341 said:

I appreciate the picture had DiRT 3 as the game.

I actually photoshopped that in hehe...

@Mb246 said:

@Knetic2341 said:

I appreciate the picture had DiRT 3 as the game.

I actually photoshopped that in hehe...

the original

Yeah....I gave up on that happening as soon as they ditched the whole "Qwikster" thing.

Not really. The last time I rented a game was back in high school (from Blockbuster no less). In fact, I'm about ready to cancel my Netflix account since I barely use it anymore and my ISP just recently enacted month bandwidth caps.