Tucked into Netflix’s strong earnings results announcement came the news that company is canning the idea of renting video games — one of the only welcome parts of its now-abandoned plan to split its web streaming and rental services.
In an earnings call Wednesday, chief executive Reed Hastings said that the company would not be renting video games, but did not elaborate on the reasoning behind the decision.
It’s not hard to imagine, however, that Netflix backed off of its plan for video games in part because of the decline the company saw in its DVD subscriptions. The company said that expects to lose 1.5 million DVD subscriptions in the next year.
Moving into the video game market would have put Netflix in direct competition with Gamefly and Redbox, which offer rentals.
In an earnings release, the company did highlight the success it’s seen making its services available on the Xbox, PlayStation and Wii.
Netflix has made improvements to many of its console and mobile applications. It has worked touch and voice control in for the Xbox 360, expanded the number of Android devices that support its app and was a launch partner for the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
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