Blockbuster saw to their own demise due to nothing more than greed.
Thats right boys and girls, Blockbuster had a legitimate chance to stomp netflix out of business.
They had a "pass" that allowed you to order movies/games online. They starting streaming videos as well.
You could "rent for free" any game, any movie. Go home watch/play it bring it (1-4 at a time depending on the service you signed up for) and replace them with a new one the same day even multiple times. PLUS they would mail you movies that you could return at the store for other movies/games (having up to 4 out at a time)
Yes, they had costs, but they had one thing netflix didn't. Storefronts.(At this time netflix's business was mostly mail with streaming not being a "big thing" yet.
Blockbuster had MANY people skipping past netflix and sticking with them because it was the bigger bonus (when Netflix began streaming so too did blockbuster. Blockbuster titles werent as numerous in the streaming department, but the other perks MORE than made up for it.
Blockbusters short sighted greed is why they collapsed and why Netflix prevailed. They could have driven their competitor under or merged and still maintained business. But that short sightedness caused them to raise prices and set rules half way through "the game" where customers had already signed up for the service only to be told "Nope you pay us this much money and you can take out 8 movies for the month or some lame limitation.
That is when they lost me 100%. Not my fault you werent willing to think out a plan for your company and you failed to plan that people would buy the plan and your movies wouldn't be available for rent as "new release" prices.
I was never a fan of Blockbuster but once they started that service I couldn't pass on it. When they changed the rules, I was done. I say good riddance.
