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Last September, Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings announced that the company would be splitting its Internet streaming service and DVD rental business into separate companies. The announcement instantly caused a significant amount of public backlash, and eventually Netflix threw in the towel and reintegrated the two services. From a marketing perspective, Netflix’s decision to spin its quickly declining DVD rental wing into a business that could quietly fail in relative oblivion was a subtly brilliant. However, the execution left something to be desired. In fact, one of the things that made the whole decision confusing was the news that Qwikster would begin offering game rentals when it finally opened its doors. If Netflix was looking to protect the central brand by amputating the destined-for-failure DVD appendage, why would Qwikster begin offering a new service? The whole thing was a bit bewildering. 
Obviously there’s a certain amount of disappointment felt by those of us who are anxious make the switch from GameFly, a company notorious for being incapable of getting rentals out on time. But I guess we’ll have to just stick with GameFly’s sporadic service, at least until Netflix decides to make another colossal marketing mistake. By Josh Engen |
The image featured at the top of this post is ©The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III key art.