Gabe Newell had a point when he argued piracy was a platform and distribution problem.
We saw the piracy community practically collapse in the last decade or two as a result of streaming platforms having really good deals, subscriptions being cheap and easy access to huge amounts of content.
Now we're seeing pullback as enshittification happens to these previously good services and people return to piracy as they no longer solve the distribution and platform issues.
I'll probably get some flak for calling these services good but they really fucking were originally and that's why they killed rental markets and changed so much so quickly.
Netflix as it was when founded was truly a great service, lots of movies and shows from various sources, and it was relatively cheap
If they didnt sink so much money into producing their own content, I think it would have kept some quality today even with the big fracturing of streaming services into a million different platforms
The real problem is that their strategy was to "become HBO" in an era where HBO could no longer exist - in the end, it was HBO and everybody else who "became Netflix".
the media monopolies saw their success and undercut them by fencing all their content off behind their own streamers. netflix could've pivoted international (and to some extent has) but the original product in the US was doomed from the moment everyone realized it was a good idea
Hell, I was one of those. I used to torrent movies and TV shows, or stream them off numerous shady servers via Kodi. Then once legit streaming became viable options, I figured paying a few bucks a month is well worth not downloading a potential virus or risking getting kicked off my ISP for torrenting.
The thing that pisses me off the most about the enshittification of these streaming services is the ads. Being able to watch stuff ad-free was my biggest draw factor for paying a few bucks a month. Then they started putting ads at the beginning of a stream. Fine, whatever, I was ok with that. Now they interrupt what you're watching every 10-20 minutes with 30, 60 or even 90 seconds of unskippable ads. It's especially infuriating if it's during a movie. Also, the fact they're doing all this shit on top of raising prices.
Time to start flying the skull and crossbones again.
Gabe Newell had a point when he argued piracy was a platform and distribution problem.
We saw the piracy community practically collapse in the last decade or two as a result of streaming platforms having really good deals, subscriptions being cheap and easy access to huge amounts of content.
Now we're seeing pullback as enshittification happens to these previously good services and people return to piracy as they no longer solve the distribution and platform issues.
I'll probably get some flak for calling these services good but they really fucking were originally and that's why they killed rental markets and changed so much so quickly.
Netflix as it was when founded was truly a great service, lots of movies and shows from various sources, and it was relatively cheap
If they didnt sink so much money into producing their own content, I think it would have kept some quality today even with the big fracturing of streaming services into a million different platforms
They would've lost all their licenced content and been left with nothing. That's why they pivoted.
The real problem is that their strategy was to "become HBO" in an era where HBO could no longer exist - in the end, it was HBO and everybody else who "became Netflix".
the media monopolies saw their success and undercut them by fencing all their content off behind their own streamers. netflix could've pivoted international (and to some extent has) but the original product in the US was doomed from the moment everyone realized it was a good idea
Hell, I was one of those. I used to torrent movies and TV shows, or stream them off numerous shady servers via Kodi. Then once legit streaming became viable options, I figured paying a few bucks a month is well worth not downloading a potential virus or risking getting kicked off my ISP for torrenting.
The thing that pisses me off the most about the enshittification of these streaming services is the ads. Being able to watch stuff ad-free was my biggest draw factor for paying a few bucks a month. Then they started putting ads at the beginning of a stream. Fine, whatever, I was ok with that. Now they interrupt what you're watching every 10-20 minutes with 30, 60 or even 90 seconds of unskippable ads. It's especially infuriating if it's during a movie. Also, the fact they're doing all this shit on top of raising prices.
Time to start flying the skull and crossbones again.