Big News from the Land of the Red Envelope.
It's not an exagerration to say that almost 90% of the people I know with current video game consoles subscribe to Netflix. Their Instant Watch video streaming service has a huge catalog of movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Even with the price increase Netflix announced this past summer, the service provides an incredible value for people who are tired of the monopolistic structures of
cable and sattelitle providers.
Late Sunday night, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted on the Netflix blog what is a surprisingly candid message from a corporate head honcho. Hastings apologized for the way his company announced the price increases for the DVD by mail and streaming portions of the site. He also announced that the two services will be separating, with the DVD service being renamed Qwikster. The real good news here is that Qwikster will now offer video games by mail, too. Currently planning on launching with XBox 360, Playstation3, and Wii games, there's little doubt they will also expand to the next round of hardware, beginning with the Wii U.
In a video messages included with the blog post, Hastings said "Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. " When asked about digital media, he wrote, "Old Fogey discs will last a long time."
Your move, GameFly.
UPDATE: The best part of this is the fact that the Twitter account @Qwikster is already taken. But what seems to be a juggalo. Well played.
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