Prices of Game Rentals.

[Urban Sketch]

Man, the prices of game rentals have really gotten out of hand. At Blockbuster, it costs me close to $11 (CDN) to rent a game. I always liked to rent a game before buying it, to make sure I'm not wasting my money, but it's almost dumb to do that now because it costs almost 1/4 the game's price just to rent it. We have a Microplay to rent games from, but they rarely get new games in. Rentals are cheaper, though. But I remember when all rentals were between 3-5 dollars.

Nowadays, I take a good look at video footage before buying. It's a cheaper method, and still gives you a fairly good idea what the game will be like.

Anyone else mad at the rental issue these days?

[Eusis]

Though this isn't entirely because of the price issue, I've rarely rented games as of late. As it is though, I'm more inclined to use GameFly than support Blockbuster. 5 dollars was fine, and 6 was pushing it. But going to 7 and 8 is just insane, and older games litterally aren't worth renting since you can buy the game and keep it for life for little more than the cost of renting twice. At least with Gamefly, I can try out as many games as I want and thus actually judge their quality without having to pay most of the cost as it is..

[Cauton]

Nah, I haven't rented a game since the PSX era. A big contributing factor is that the games I want to play come out in PAL territories serveral months after the US releases (if they are released in Europe at all), and by that time I will already have bought the game. Doesn't help that I don't own a PAL console anyway.

I tend to base my buying decisions on previews and trailers, as well as forum discussions/word of mouth, instead. I've been disappointed with a game in a few cases (Grandia 3, Magna Carta: Tears of Blood), but for the most part it works out pretty well for me. I can usually tell if I will like a game just by reading about it.

[ToxicTears]

I like just the idea of ownership enough that I never rent games. So I get a game or two that I don't love, it's not the end of the world. If it's a game that I'm not sure of, I usually wait awhile til the price drops, or grab it used, and if I hate it, I find a friend to sell it to.

[Dade]

What is this........renting of games?

Haven explain this to me.

[John]

I am a proud GameFly Subscriber.

-John

[Takabo]

I've never been a supporter of game rentals.  There's just something about having a collection that makes it hard to rent or to get rid of old games (which kinda sounds unhealthy, now that I type it out).  It's been much easier to support my position in recent years now that Blockbuster is charging ridiculous prices.  As is pointed out, it's about 1/5 the price of buying the game new now to rent it, assuming they get a copy and it's in stock.  I just can't justify paying $8 or more to keep a game 5 days.

Blockbuster, in general, is becoming less and less relevant.  Netflix (which I'm a member) absolutely destroys it in movie terms, and Gamefly has the potential to do the same for games.  I really can't see them existing for much longer, at least not in nearly the same force.

[Dice]

Urban SKetch, Im in the same situation you are, with a Canadian Blockbuster.  Its cool you get to rent it longer, but the price really is shitty. =/

But, along with many here, I dont rent games on a frequent basis, and if I do, its because I heard a helluva good word from many (ie; Shadow of the Colossus was a game I dished the 10 bucks for).

[Rindu]

I always rent games before buying them.  But, I'm lucky in that there is a local, independent video game store in town here.  Not only does it have a selection of rentals vastly superior to Blockbuster, but the rentals are only $2.50 for five days, plus $1 per additional day.

[Lucca]

Like KeeperX, I'm also a proud Gamefly subscriber. I mostly joined it because the two places to rent games from where I live (Hollywood Video and Blockbuster) are not only notoriously expensive, but they often don't have the games I want to rent. Hollywood in particular has virtually NO RPGs to rent. The last one I was able to rent from them was Fire Emblem for GC.

I have a habit of trusting the word of mouth of my friends, buying a 40-50 game only to find I hate it or lose interest halfway through. Gamefly is awesome for that, because I can play it and see if I like it first.

Another thing people don't know about Gamefly is their 'Keep It' feature. If you like a game you're renting enough, you can buy the game at a used game price and they'll ship your the box and manual. I used it to buy Animal Crossing WW (I swore I'd never buy another AC again...so much for that!) and I'm considering buying Suikoden V from them, since I'm renting it now and it's oh so awesome.

If Gamefly, or anything akin to it (there are other rental companies besides just gamefly) didn't exsist, I'd probably not rent games.

[Lilim]

How is GameFly's service for those who've subscribed with them?

Do you have any problems getting certain games you put into your queue?

Just curious. There's a few games I'd like to rent and I haven't rented games since the PSX era as well. I'm glad I was old enough by the time Blockbuster really started raising their game rental rates so I could afford to buy the games instead of paying the same amount in eventual rental fees. I could've owned 3 copies for as many times as I rented Suikoden I...

[Sketch]

I used to love going to the local Blockbuster as a kid and picking out a few games from time to time, since back then, I had little to no money, and my mom wasn't willing to shell out the $50 needed to actually buy something. But now that I actually have money to spend, I much prefer owning something as opposed to borrowing it for five days.

That said, I really don't rent much of anything anymore. I mean, if I'm with my cousin or something, we usually rent a few co-op games like Metal Slug or something to tide us over for the time we are together, but other than that, I just purchase whatever I want to play. I really don't mind if I buy a crappy RPG either, since I kind of enjoy having stuff to call my own, and watching my collection grow.

[Tomara]

I never rented a game, it has always been to expensive over here. You pay 5 euro for several days and they charge 4 euro for a 'recent' movie for one day. No thank you, I'll wait a few months and buy the movie for 5 euro.

 I have bought several ex-rentals though, it's nice when companies decide there is no money in it anymore. When the local MegaVideo dumped their videogames I bought a PS2, three games (including Grandia II), a good laptopbag, extra controller, memorycard and vertical stand for 60 euro.

[Ryos]

Yeah, I pretty much stopped renting because the prices have gotten so insane.  At this point I just buy what I want, and more often than not what I buy ends up being worthwhile because I investigate them thoroughly.  When the rental cost ends up being almost as much as say the purchase cost (refer to cheap DVDs), there's something wrong.

[Galactic]

The last game Galactic rented from Blockbuster was Megaman X2 for Super Nintendo.

Ever since then he's been buying or getting them from Gamefly.

Renting games nowadays is too much of a hassle...

^_-;