Kotaku: Rental

Gamefly Testing Trade-Ins

Mike Fahey — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:40:21 MST

We all know that GameFly replaces having to run out to the store and buy a game with the convenience of having to wait several weeks in a queue for AAA titles, but what about our old games? They just sit there, gathering dust and making our entertainment centers look all varied and colorful. Well soon GameFly might even be able help with that. The company has been testing a game trade-in service through select customers, allowing gamers to ship in their used games in for credit towards membership fees and purchasing other used games. The folks at Joystiq contacted GameFly, who gave them the down-low.

We've been testing a trade-in program for a few months now. When we are convinced that there is sufficient consumer demand and the customer experience is highly robust, we expect to make it available to all our members.

Of curse other websites have had this sort of system in place for quite some time, and as the article states GameFly's used prices don't bode well for trade-in values. Convenient possibly, but I still think eBay will still be the most profitable way to go when you're clearing out shelf space.

GameFly testing pre-played trade-in program [Joytiq]

A Renter Does Not A Buyer Make

Mark Wilson — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:00:48 MST

Here's some confirmation of what most of us already knew: a study by Frank N. Magid Associates shows that renting is bad for game sales. In particular, check out these two findings:

1. Nearly 50% of all console game renters didn't purchase a single game they rented last year.
2. Only 9% of renters bought 11% or more of the games they rented.

In short: if you rent a game, you don't buy it. But who ever bought that whole "try before you buy" argument, anyway? Though I will admit to keeping a few games from my monthly mail rental service of choice.

Game Rentals Eating into Purchases [via maxconsole]

Blockbuster Renting GH Guitar

Mike Fahey — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:40:18 MDT

This is certainly something new for my local Blockbuster Video store, though your results may vary. The Blockbuster my roommate works at is renting the Guitar Hero controller for the Xbox 360 starting today. The controller rents separately of the game itself at $7.99 before tax, so, for the total package, you'll have to shell out $16 of your hard-earned monies. I cannot remember another time in the history of major retail game rentals that they've had a separate rental—or rental at all, for that matter—of a gaming peripheral. It's a testament to the popularity of the Guitar Hero franchise, I suppose. Keep in mind that Blockbuster tends to have its head up its ass when it comes to ordering games at their non Game Rush stores, so call ahead before rushing out to have your heart broken.

Hey UK! Rent 360 Games for Your Original Xbox!!

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:22:59 MDT

With all those different models and different consoles out there, it sure is difficult to keep everything straight. That is, if you don't really give a hoot. Kotakuite Ophiuchus was walking past his local game retailer somewhere in Great Britain, when he stumbled on the above advertisement for 360 games that features an original Xbox controller. Would that be considered backwards compatible, forwards compatible or something else entirely? Brian Ashcraft

E306: Clean My Disc

kotaku.com — Thu, 11 May 2006 20:30:00 MDT

I was walking through one of the halls when this little cherry-red number caught my eye. I do a fair amount of damage to the CDs that have the misfortune to end up in my car, so a better disc repair device than the hand-cranked jobbies seemed like a good idea. Then I saw the price: $995. That's a lot of copies of Dark Side of the Moon.

Turns out there's a big market for professional-level disc repair. All the DVD and game rental shops, all the used CD stores, all the video game stores give you five bucks off a game if you turn in eighteen, they need to at least try to get the ferret claw marks out of the poor abused discs you turn in. The "Disc-Go-Devil," as it's called, is actually one of the lower-end professional machines. DiscGoTech makes massive disc repairing monsters that can clean up to 225 discs an hour. Our scientific simulations say it would take over two thousand stoners with hardwood floors to screw up discs at that rate.

DiscGoTech [Official Site]

GameFly Gets Annoyed At 360 Scratching

Brian Crecente — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 13:00:33 MST

Just noticed that GameFly has started to get a wee bit annoyed about their rented Xbox 360 games coming back all scratched. According to Gamasutra, the company has started sending out form letters to people who return a damaged Xbox 360 game:

We have received reports that certain XBOX 360 consoles have caused damage to GameFly videogames. Unfortunately, we have been notified that you recently returned a damaged XBOX 360 game.
As a precaution, we have removed all XBOX 360 games from your GameQ. Please contact Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX. Please do not rent XBOX 360 games until you have resolved this issue.

In the future, should GameFly receive XBOX 360 games from you that have been damaged, you will be charged a replacement fee.

That can't be good, has anyone has similar experiences with other game rental services?

GameFly Rental Service Relays Xbox 360 Disc Scratching Problems [Gamasutra]