Steam really did this for games for me and somehow hasn't stopped working for me yet. Maybe Netflix should ask themselves how Steam competes with bootlegs and what they might do like it.
My perception (maybe incorrect) is that it's harder to play online multi-player games using cracked copies of games without getting found out and banned. Also the risk of getting some malware with your cracked copy (single- or multi-player) is very real, something you don't really have to worry about with a video file.
Regardless of that, the model is just different: if I can pay Netflix $15/mo for unlimited access to their entire catalog -- and their catalog includes everything I want to watch -- then I'm not going to need to go elsewhere, and I'll be happy. If I do, those monthly subscription fees are going to start to add up and make me unhappy.
But Steam doesn't have a subscription service; you pay individually for each game, and there are pretty frequent sales and discounted bundles. If Steam doesn't have a game you want, you buy it from someone else that does have it, and your cost is essentially the same as it would have been if Steam did have it. (Some games do require a subscription, but that's also not really the same thing as Netflix.)
And the usage is just different, too: if you buy a game, you're probably going to play it for many tens or hundreds of hours, over months or maybe even years. For a movie or TV show, you're going to watch it once, most likely, and that's it. When you think about it, $60 (often less) for a game that you get years of enjoyment out of seems pretty reasonable. But then you look at Amazon Video, where you can rent or buy some titles, and the cost is going to be $3 for an hour or two of entertainment, if you're only renting. $3 bucks for two hours vs. $60 for hundreds of hours? No contest.
Not saying they are the same, no, but you seem to think it is so different that it's impossible for NF to have a business model without stamping out bootlegging?
If so, they're done for, because it's not going to be possible to do that.
But I think providing a product that desirable and easy to view might work and they're just not doing it and blaming evil-doers for their own failure as a business.
Super difficult to pirate multiplayer games, keep up with DLCs/patches and to keep the competitive aspect of some games (leaderboards, steam achievements).
The problem with Netflix is that many studios saw how profitable Netflix is and wanted their share, so they stopped licencing content to Netflix and opened their own services.
If that were the case, all games including AAA would be exclusively multiplayer. While there have been some MP-only games (because that's a good strategy to acquire users), that's not been the case. In fact, you can get MP on cracked games through steam by abusing the API.
GabeN was right, it's a service problem. Sure, when I was a teen I would crack all my games, but I had no money and was never going to be a paying costumer. Now that I have money I can spend, and since steam has acquired me as a user, if I want to buy a game I will check steam. I still crack some games because I do not have infinite money, but it's always because I checked the price and decided it was too much first.
Regardless of that, the model is just different: if I can pay Netflix $15/mo for unlimited access to their entire catalog -- and their catalog includes everything I want to watch -- then I'm not going to need to go elsewhere, and I'll be happy. If I do, those monthly subscription fees are going to start to add up and make me unhappy.
But Steam doesn't have a subscription service; you pay individually for each game, and there are pretty frequent sales and discounted bundles. If Steam doesn't have a game you want, you buy it from someone else that does have it, and your cost is essentially the same as it would have been if Steam did have it. (Some games do require a subscription, but that's also not really the same thing as Netflix.)
And the usage is just different, too: if you buy a game, you're probably going to play it for many tens or hundreds of hours, over months or maybe even years. For a movie or TV show, you're going to watch it once, most likely, and that's it. When you think about it, $60 (often less) for a game that you get years of enjoyment out of seems pretty reasonable. But then you look at Amazon Video, where you can rent or buy some titles, and the cost is going to be $3 for an hour or two of entertainment, if you're only renting. $3 bucks for two hours vs. $60 for hundreds of hours? No contest.