It only announced them last last month, but Netflix has already scrapped plans to re-brand its DVD-by-mail service as Qwikster. The company has instead decided to keep everything it does under the one name.
“We underestimated the appeal of the single web site and a single service,” said Netflix’s Steve Swasey. “We greatly underestimated it.”
The Qwikster announcement caused a considerable amount of controversy … on Twitter … for half a day. A bunch of canceled subscriptions probably didn’t help either. The name sounded ridiculous, like a Genesis-era platform character, and it seemed blatantly certain that having two names would simply confuse customers.
With Qwikster’s announcement came the revelation that it would be adding videogames to its library. That seems unchanged, but now that they’re going to be sent under the Netflix name, Blockbuster will have to change its shamelessly desperate commercial where it says Netflix doesn’t do games. God, that commercial is pathetic.
Netflix Abandons Plan to Rent DVDs on Qwikster [New York Times]
