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Yep. Some people are blinded by hate when it comes to Gamestop. It's printed (Return Policy) on the back of every receipt tho. OT: I thought Blockbuster closed years ago. Oh well, this doesn't phase me a bit. | |
It can be used to your advantage though. A blockbuster near me closed recently, and I was able to buy a few used games, then sell them back to Gamestop for about $20 dollars in profit. | |
*used second page second paragraph. I enjoyed the article a lot. I remember when I used to rent things and gaming was way more fun because last-ability was no longer a requirement. Buying a game is an investment for me and that's why I like competitive games or RPGs but I feel like I've missed out on a lot of the great single player action/platformers of the last god knows how many years because I figured they weren't long enough to warrant $60. Also I like how you touched on the "spontaneity" of renting. There are a lot of mediocre games that are still fun that don't get played because people research their purchases and only by games which are <8/10. | |
Part of me doesn't give a flying flip about Blockbuster going downhill, but that's just me being bitter. I've had bad experiences with them that became part of the reason I turned to Netflix and never looked back. The rental store that I miss was a Mom n Pop one that was down the street from where I lived as a teen. You could get there by a fifteen minute walk down a road with no sidewalk. The old man who ran the rental store charged $3 for five days, and he used some sort of heat gun to burn the name of the store into the game cartridges. At the time that seemed to be the only thing you needed to ensure someone wouldn't just make off with the game, I guess. My brother and I used to go there all the time to rent games for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, and the store owner was like that uncle who always had all the cool stuff. The store's been turned into something else now but I'll never forget where it stood and what an awesome part of my life it was. Unfortunately, I don't play games enough to have a Gamefly membership. But, that's also another reason why I'm not feeling that bad for Blockbuster. They've moved into the online rental-by-mail venue and do games as well as movies. Blockbuster may be losing its physical presence in towns but I believe it will continue to live on, and it may even be better than before. Personally, I consider getting a DVD in the mail from Netflix like having Christmas every other day. You get home and there's that recognizeable red package sticking out of your mailbox with something you've been waiting to see. For me, that feeling of getting a "gift" almost everyday replaces the one of browsing aisles. So while I sigh at the fond memory I have of the old man's rental store I used to visit, nowadays I feel giddy with anticipation over what film on my list of must-sees will be coming in the mail. | |
My job requires me to travel a lot so I abuse the hell out of this policy. I make no secret when I go in and get four or so PSP or DS titles that I will be coming back for my security deposit when when I return home. Fortunately the staff at my local Gamestop is fairly good natured about it so it's all good. If I'm going to be actually home for an extended period of time I will go grab a 360 or PS3 title from them used and (hopefully) blow through it before the 7 days is up. However, if I don't then I return it on day seven and go buy it again at the other Gamestop a few miles away inside the mall. Gaming legally for free is pretty freaking sweet all in all. | |
Blockbuster made some extremely bad decisions and now they are going out of business. It's the way things are supposed to work. As a counter to the rental companies don't work argument, let me say this "Family Video". Rental companies are going to exist for a while. The business principle just works. | |
It is pretty depressing. The last time I was in a Blockbuster it actually made me sad at how dead it was, and the surprise of the employees when someone actually walked inside. | |
The problem is that people always treat was doesn't belong to them like shit. I remember renting Final Fantasy 10 at my local Blockbuster a month or two before I got it; some tosser had carved TWAT into it with what looked like a key. It got to Luca, and thereafter would not play. So that dampened my want for rentals. Its a shame; as a kid I would always take £10 into Blockbuster every month, rent two films and buy a tub of Ben and Jerry's. Not been in the place for years; it died long ago, and its only the bare bones of what it used to be. | |
Blockbuster isn't the only video game rental place. There's online ones (gamefly) and other local rental stores as well. As sad as it would be to lose Blockbuster altogether (I used to work there) maybe it's time! Perhaps now is the era in which blockbuster is no longer needed. Just like how movie theaters are going to be soon. | |
Onlive and other things like that will take their place in the same way Steam took retail game stores | |
I've used Gamefly for years and I really don't see this as a very big deal. I haven't had to rent a game in years and years, and yeah Gamefly's a little tricky but when you learn the intricacies (if you put only new games in your queue, you'll get something within a week) it's incredibly convenient. And Blockbuster had the same problem of running out of rentals of new titles, so it's really not that different. | |
Does anyone else here miss Hollywood Video? They had a HUGE game rentail library compared to BB, and I miss them now :'(. | |
I miss places like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. I miss the days when my brother and I would walk around the aisles, checking out what kind of games there are and what we should rent. Now, the place where Hollywood used to be is now an empty space that has yet to be bought for the past three or so years. My local Blockbuster was also taken down as well. It's kind of depressing seeing some of the places from your childhood get taken away as you grow older. It just shows you don't know what you got till it's gone. R.I.P Blockbuster and Hollywood. We'll never forget you. | |
Haha, that used to be their new game policy as well! I think I bought maybe 3 games for the first few years the PS2 was out, at least till they changed the policy. It was ludicrous... and ocmpletely awesome all at once. OT: They have this service called Gamefly. It's Netflix for videogames. $10/month gets you a rental at a time with no late fees or anything..... I know you guys know what I'm talking about. This article is very dramatic, haha. | |
Wait, is blockbuster not renting games anymore or something? | |
There's a movieworks up the street from me. | |
I definitely got into renting games with Blockbuster, especially with all these games worth only about 4-5 hours (i.e. NOT $60). Yeah I need to check of the local Play-N-Trade near me offers rental, but I've heard of that little trick with GameStop (still waiting for Netflix near here to start doing games...). Ultimately, I suppose I'll switch to Gamefly once the Blockbusters near me go extinct... | |
UK residents don't fret! we have CEX for nostalgic box browsing. They sell everything, REALLY great if you're a broke gamer. | |
At the end of the day I feel the most sorry for people who will lose their jobs over this, I know some people who work at bb because They like the benefits they have as movie buffs. sucks for them the most. | |
Direct2Drive seems to be on the right track here, though their pricing is badly set-up. | |
Honestly i'm suprised Steam doesn't do rentals, their free weekends work pretty well. | |
These on-demand streaming services haven't taken off in Ireland, apparently. There are plenty of rental stores around, which is great. Facilitated that grand old college ritual of buying a few beers and playing through the latest release on a Friday night.. | |
My library has games that you can check out for a week, but those are always gone. And I'm sure smaller libraries wouldnt even bother stocking games, they're just barely beginning to accept comic books on the shelves. More importantly, I saw one of Redbox's competitors with a game rental thing attached to it. Game rental is probably just going to shift to the dollar-a-day machines, like movies have. | |
Which is always awesome. I think a streaming service could replace the issue of waiting for the post in the areas where rental stores have died out. | |
I will definitely think of renting next time I want a game. Thankfully, Netflix only came to Canada this year, so I have some time before the option is gone forever. | |
At $10 a rental for Blockbuster, good fucking riddance, if it's really a big deal subscribe to GameFly. | |
Those Kiosks do rent Video Games now... Poor selection but still. | |
As a Blockbuster employee and avid game, I'm upset at the state of my employeer. I wish I could do something to make them realize they need more games sent in, because currently we get at most 2 copies of a 360 game, and 1 of a PS3 game. Wii usually is about the same as PS3, with a single copy of a hot new game. That's a say $60 investment, and the rental for it is currently (with tax included) $9.67, meaning you start making money on the game on the 7th rental and beyond. However, there seem to be about 3 people a week wanting a game, and usually it only gets rented out once a week, meaning it takes at least 2 and a half months to make money on a PS3 game, and a month to make money on a 360 game. I also tell people, trying to get people to preorder games, that preordering at our store rather than gamestop is better, because you can take risks. You put the 5 bucks down to preorder the game, but instead of coming in to buy the game when it comes out, rent it first. If you think it's worth the money, you can pick up the game, but if you think you won't like it, get the money back, because we will return the money if you change your mind. The point of this is, it seems like Blockbuster doesn't use games to it's full potential. | |
I wish I rented more games, but for some reason I can never bring myself to do so. I like the feeling of owning the game, and it feels that much better when I know I've earned that $60 through hardwork, smart spending, and patience. I tried out GameFly as well, but it took much too long for them to receive and send the games, sometimes up to two weeks (and I live relatively close to one of the shipping centers!). Netflix does better than that in three days. Though I suppose that is a testament to the whole culture of "here and now". With all the crazy amount of great games coming out relatively soon, though (Portal 2, L.A. Noire, InFamous 2, etc...), I may just have to resort to renting. There's a Blockbuster still surviving just a few minutes from my house, maybe I can utilize the time... | |
The ISP I work for blocks bittorrent traffic. It's not a practice I like, but there actually is a reason behind it. Until we started blocking it, bittorrent traffic represented nearly 50% of all internet traffic on our network(and it was growing). This is a real problem where we are because we are unable to increase total available bandwidth. It's not a money issue, we just can't do it. What that means is that one type of bandwidth use can increase only at the expense of bandwidth for everything else. This is something that people don't always think about. Bittorrent, streaming video, streaming gaming(if that ever took off), Steam, etc. use up monstrous amounts of bandwidth. Eventually there is going to be a price for that. For those that have it now, unlimited bandwidth will likely either go away, or will come at a premium. That's going to be the only way that ISPs will be able to justify the cost of laying down the fiber necessary for the future Internet. | |
should have a red box for video games, they can call it the green box, or the blue box. | |
This article is weird to me in so many ways, why? Because I used to do the exact same thing before my local blockbuster crashed & burned. Seriously, I'm a high schooler with no job so money is always a problem for me, and I always had to save up for bigger releases (what little money I have left from the traditional Christmas windfall is going towards portal 2, and the allowance I save up from Summer is going towards Skyrim) thanks to blockbuster and my coke rewards (good thing most of my family are heavy coke drinkers!) I could try out I game I wasn't sure of, block buster really helped me find games I enjoyed and stopped me from paying for games that were just "meh" for me, seriously with most of my money being diverted to just two games in what is the space of a few months, I'll miss Blockbuster because I could try out games for free when I just wanted to experiment with titles I haven't played, without it I'm probably not going to be as experimental with game purchases as before. | |
Gamefly | |
Is Gamefly not around? | |
Renting games is awesome. It means i avoid the massive, expensive disappointments that accompany 80% of this gen console games. | |
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