Netflix No Longer Interested in Offering Game Rentals

Netflix, the company that is best known for video streaming and for mail-powered disc movie rentals, has stated that it no longer plans to offer video games via its mail service and is, presumably, no longer interested in offering streaming for video game content.

Reed Hastings, the chief executive officer at Netflix, broke the news while speeking to investors via a conference call.

Netflix began talking about video game rentals during September of last year, when it was set to split in two different entities, one which would handle the streaming element and another that would be linked just to mail delivery.

Netflix was to remain the name of the streaming service, the more profitable and best-known part of the business.

The new by-mail service, which was set to expand to include video games, was supposed to be called Qwikster.

Reed Hastings then stated, “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.”

The video games rented would be offered on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii and gamers would get the same service and the same conditions currently linked to the movie rental service.

Since then Netflix decided that splitting the company was a bad idea, and the company seems less ambitious after being attacked by customers for their intention to raise prices.

The video game rental by mail business is at the moment dominated by GameFly.

The entire niche is being challenged by the fact that more and more gamers are interested in digital distribution, which has been long on the rise on the PC.

There are rumors that the next home consoles from Sony and Microsoft might also include digital distribution services for the titles that also arrive at retail.