Video game rentals to eradicate pre-owned sales?
Pubs offering Blockbuster "an awful lot of support".
The video game rental market may be about to take off.
Publishers are apparently offering companies like Blockbuster "an awful lot of support" in the hope that game rentals will damage the pre-owned market.
"We have ramped up the rental side of our business and we have got an awful lot of support from publishers," Blockbuster told MCV. "Publishers like renting as it takes away from trade-ins.
"The problem with trade-ins is the publisher doesn't get any money. The advantage of renting is that they get quite a lot of money."
Blockbuster charges £5 to rent a game for five nights. Extending the rental costs £1 per night. If you want to buy the game after renting it, Blockbuster will deduct your rental fee.
"Take Q4, there must be at least 35 major games out," Blockbuster said. "You physically can't buy them all. But you'd like to play them all. So we have put together a very cost-effective way for consumers to play games."
Blockbuster, like Lovefilm, also offers a monthly subscription service for £7.99 or £9.99. The former fee allows one game rental at a time, and the latter allows two. Post back a game to receive another.
Blockbuster aims to entice people to rentals with expensive television advertising campaigns between Champions League football matches and episodes of the X Factor.