Netflix reneging on offering games by mail?

by: Dan - posted: 10/27/2011 6:53:00 AM

As Netflix’s self-inflicted bad news has been rolling in the last couple of months, one sliver of light was mentioned for gamers during the ill-fated Qwikster announcement. Netflix would be starting to rent games through the mail. Unfortunately, during Monday’s update with investors, Reed Hastings made this comment that doesn’t bode well for the implementation of games by mail:

"We have yet to decide whether or not to offer video game discs," CEO Reed Hastings said. "The decision will have little financial impact either way."

That last comment “little financial impact” once again shows that Hastings and Netflix do not listen to their customers. The whole reason the Qwikster deal was scuttled is because consumers did not want two bills or websites to deal with. I would think (I know I would) that if the opportunity arises to rent my DVDs, games and streaming content from a single subscription off a single site, people would jump at it. Unfortunately, it sounds like Hastings simply doesn’t care about the customer and their needs or wants and is only bottom-line driven. To put it another way, with Qwikster DOA, it appears that Hastings is hell-bent on getting the Netflix brand away from the disc-by-mail business model even if it means going back on yet another announced product.