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Do you miss rentals or a rental service?


Guest Chibiuk
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Guest Chibiuk

More of a UK issue I imagine but many months ago during the whole DRM uproar. I kept making various points to friends and people at work how DRM if handled well would not be a bad thing. I wont go into that issue again but I will simply say, if Steam, itunes, netflix etc etc can go all digital why cant console gaming get away with it? In my opinion it will in the next generation and frankly should as we dont need stores anymore but anyway...

 

With Blockbuster closing down and the amount of physical gaming stores reduced to just CEX ( who only handle pre owned )

and Game ( whose stores are tiny and lack any personality and whose staff are nagged endlessly to get pre orders and targets )

And a tiny number of websites that specialize in gaming itself and have rental services and apart from the Playstation service which was rightly mocked for its pricing, there are not many options available for renting games.

 

While I can physically afford to go buy Evil Within right now and while being rather generous Xmas time and with gifts for friends or meals etc, I rarely spend on my self. My friends joke how im tight but i prefer to be careful.

I used to rent the mass majority of my games as in my mind buying a game like Evil Within, something I will likely only play twice if I really enjoyed it first time around and then selling it ASAP for a loss of about £20 is frankly not worth it. I miss the option to rent something for a week for maybe £8 and then get my fill of that game.

 

As we have seen with the EA access programme, its easy to implement a DRM esque time system or sign up to give and take away access of games...and yet...no one moans or whines like they did at the xbox one launch. If EA and Sony are willing to bring in apps or systems where we pay for a lump sum and get access to a vault or to rent digitally, then why cant MS or other publishers do it?

 

Of course £ $ is the real answer as you would have to weigh up the good and and bad points of a permanent purchase , which would then be sold pre owned, and of people just renting games and not paying full price anymore.

 

Whats your rental preferences?

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When I was younger and didn't have a mortgage, wife, daughter, etc., rentals would have made sense for me (had I not been a collecter/hoarder mentality in the first place), but it's different for me now. A rental period simply wouldn't cut it, and sometimes I like to replay a game years later.

 

I think it would work. Just not for this guy :)

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I do miss going to Blockbuster and browsing through the games section. But with my schedule and other priorities I wont be able to beat a game in a 3-5 day time span.

 

Agreed. I on the OG Xbox and even the first two years of the Xbox 360, I would visit Blockbuster twice and thrice a month and pick up a random title that looked interesting. Can't do that anymore :/ Though, my gaming taste is incredibly narrow now and I am a hardcore completionist so renting games wouldn't suit me now anyways :p However, I tend to sell my games right away as soon as I complete them so who knows :confused:

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It will be a sad day when rentals go away. I use gamefly and love it. Rentals, if a quick turn around time is used, is more cost effective than buying games.

 

However, I also like the ease of digital games. I disagree though with the pricing MS has for that when retail/physical copies drop drastically and pretty quickly. Of course, digital stuff doesn't take up shelf space, so moving the product quickly doesn't matter as much. I'm not sure about PSN, but you did mention them and their pricing so I'm guessing it's along the same lines.

 

For me, the bottom line would be, digital media needs to be done like Steam. Good sales and price adjustments. I didn't like how MS wanted to go full digital, because I do like CE stuff with some games; as well as, having some games physically anyway. I did, however, do the EA Access year and didn't complain. People didn't 'moan' about that though simply because it's $30 bucks a year (I don't know why you'd do the monthly sub) and you get ~5 games (so far) which is worth the money alone. On top of that, you get a discount on games/dlc and a demo option.

 

Choice is what it comes down to though. People like having a choice.

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Guest Chibiuk
Im using a rental service called boomarang. Used it ever since lovefilm shut down and have had no problems with it. Keep them as logn as i want for £10 :)

 

I will look into that.

 

I admit Im money tight about certain things in life but I have in the past bought games from Game pre owned, got the case open without breaking the seal, its easy but painful, play the game and then return it for credit. hehe Yes its sly and conning the store but fuck em I hate Game.

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I tried Gamefly for a couple months back in 2008 (or 09), but it wasn't for me. For this generation, I've only purchased digital games, mostly at release. I honestly can't remember the last time I physically went out and rented a video game.... it might have been 15 years ago with the PS1.

 

Thinking of Gamefly, their entire business revolves around Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft allowing used games to be played on their systems. If that goes.... think of all of the dominoes that fall with it... Gamestop (or any used game video store), Gamefly, etc etc.

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Guest Chibiuk
I tried Gamefly for a couple months back in 2008 (or 09), but it wasn't for me. For this generation, I've only purchased digital games, mostly at release. I honestly can't remember the last time I physically went out and rented a video game.... it might have been 15 years ago with the PS1.

 

Thinking of Gamefly, their entire business revolves around Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft allowing used games to be played on their systems. If that goes.... think of all of the dominoes that fall with it... Gamestop (or any used game video store), Gamefly, etc etc.

 

Gaming stores will die out next generation or after anyway, Consoles will shift to a more digital service soon. I hope they do anyway

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I use gamefly and I love it. I can get new releases on or around release day if I manage my queue properly. They sent me out Sleeping Dogs Def Edition on Saturday and it arrived yesterday at 1pm, that's better service than Amazon who deliver day one at like 7 or 8pm. Also I can keep it for $42 so I am essentially getting a brand new game at that price.

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There's a few titles that I really want to play, but don't necessarily wish to buy - so yea, I really miss rental stores =/ I used to rent really random games, that I chose purely based on the box art, I miss that too. My wallet misses all of the money I have to spend on retail games now too.

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I can't spell properly.
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The biggest issue with digital distribution is the lack of a price drop over time. When digital was new and a thing, everyone was listing advantages such as lower costs meaning cheaper games. Instead it just means higher profit margins. The price of a digital game for most consoles mirrors that of a store and then is higher for most of the games lifetime.

 

Steam sort of simulates a market to combat this with their insane sales; one of the reason steam is so succesful compared to any other digital distributor.

 

As long as Games on Demand are asking 20-40$ for a game that is 4$ preowned and 7$ new on amazon, physically, then I say HELL no to going all digital.

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The biggest issue with digital distribution is the lack of a price drop over time. When digital was new and a thing, everyone was listing advantages such as lower costs meaning cheaper games. Instead it just means higher profit margins. The price of a digital game for most consoles mirrors that of a store and then is higher for most of the games lifetime.

 

Steam sort of simulates a market to combat this with their insane sales; one of the reason steam is so succesful compared to any other digital distributor.

 

As long as Games on Demand are asking 20-40$ for a game that is 4$ preowned and 7$ new on amazon, physically, then I say HELL no to going all digital.

 

 

and that my friend is why I hate digital. The industry acts all innocent and good willed with their "corporate statements" that mean absolutely nothing.... when really the reason they are pushing for digital is to completely eliminate used sales and ultimately lower consumer options all the while passing on none of the advantages to us. Not to mention the strain it puts on your internet/requiring you to have really good plans.

 

They could sell it to us cheaper due to the lack of shipping and manufacturing costs....allow us to sell digital copies and tax it which would at least be fair....but that will absolutely never happen. The dumbest part about it....is used and rentals don't even hurt like they claim it does. I wouldnt even be a gamer if it wasn't for renting. As if my only option to try ANY game is to pay full price for it? Even if its a 4 hour game? Uhm no thank you.....I will phase myself out of gaming I did it before. I was a childhood gamer who gravitated away from it in my teens and it was a rental of Fallout 3 in late 2008 that spawned this 130k gamer score and all this money spent.

 

As for the rest I didnt realize renting seemed so hurt in places. Thankfully my state has Family Video which has DOZENS of stores.....hopefully they can grow even more because lack of renting is BS.

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Thankfully a rental store is still kicking around in my town, and I can rent Xbox One games at $4.50 for 5 days. I tend to do that before going out and purchasing, unless it's a game I know I'm going to want to own (and then I usually get that game digitally).

 

Same here, a rental chain is thriving where I am at. Several stores in the area, like 5 within decent driving distance. All the same company too. It's really nice having them here.

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Awesome, hopefully they keep rising.

 

I know they had problems back in the early 2000's but they seem to be doing better now. I never want to see them go under, they were a big part of my childhood, as I went there every Saturday night for several months maybe years for Yu-gi-oh free play and tournaments

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I used to have a LoveFilm account and did utilise it extensively, mainly to play games I wouldn't normally want to play. So FIFA, Tiger games would get bought, COD games rented (backwards to many I know). I've got round the problem of no LoveFilm by actually starting a little swap club with some friends, so 7 of us share our games around, knowing the original will always come back to us eventually for either hording or trading in. Its working well, but obviously relies heavily on trust, so it does only involve good friends and work colleagues.

 

Also, found really shopping around for games is reaping the benefits this time out. I used to use Game pretty much exclusively because of the trade-in aspect, but there's far more value in paying £32.85 for Alien: Isolation Nostromo Edition from Simplygames and have it on release day (or 3 days early as I did with The Evil Within) than pay £46.99 from Game. Some games are cheaper at Game, some at Simply, some at Amazon - just have to shop around a little, but that's easy to do online. And once done, I send off to the next friend in the queue :)

 

However, I would MUCH rather be buying all my games digitally. I just cannot understand the pricing model employed by MS. £32.85 delivered to my house, or £55 to download. Madness. The fact I don't have to swap disks is not worth £20!

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