Redbox to offer $2 per day videogame rentals in June

[Emil]

Redbox, an American company that specializes in the rental of movies via vending machines, has announced it will offer video game rentals at more than 21,000 Redbox locations in the US, starting on June 17, 2011. Top video games will go for only $2 a day, complementing Redbox's current $1 DVD and $1.50 Blu-ray daily rental prices.

In August 2009, Redbox began testing video game rentals alongside movies at 5,000 Redbox locations in select US markets. Redbox trialed its system in Reno, Nevada, Orlando, Florida, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Austin, Texas, Wilmington, North Carolina, and Corvallis, Oregon. Apparently it was enough of a success for the company to decide to move into the video game market.

Unfortunately, Redbox is only offering video game rentals for consoles at launch (that's right: no PC or Mac games). The company will feature games across the three major console platforms: the Nintendo Wii, the Microsoft Xbox 360, and the Sony PlayStation 3. Video game titles will range from top releases to popular family and kids titles. As its reasoning for entering the video game rental market, Redbox cited a Q4 2010 survey from Interpret New Media Measure that said 64 percent of people in the US own a game console.

The trouble with renting video games over movies is that the consumer will likely require longer than 24 hours for the rental. Still, $2 is a very reasonable price for a day of gaming and it would still be very cheap to rent a game for a weekend or even a whole week.

"Redbox will increase consumers' access to video game rentals by leveraging our incredible technology and business model to keep rental prices low for consumers," said Mitch Lowe, president of Redbox. "With more than 21,000 redbox locations slated to feature video game rentals alongside movies this June, Redbox will be the one-stop shop for entertainment. Redbox has rented more than one million video games in less than two years at these locations, underscoring the popularity of video game play in America."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/43551-redbox-to-offer-2-per-day-videogame-rentals-in-june.html

 

[Raswan]

Sweet. Looking forward to it.

 

[Vrmithrax]

They've had games at my local Redbox locations for months... We were part of a test market, and I didn't even know it. Hasn't been since 2009 though, my area must have been a late comer to the testing.

 

[Guest]

PLease give this to PC too!! I would love to rent portal 2 insted of buying it because I finished it in 3 hours so I dont even need 1 day rental

 

[Guest]

THIS IS GREAT!!! NOW PEOPLE CAN RIP THE GAMES OFF THE DISC'S AND PUT THEM ON THEIR COMPUTERS FOR ONLY 2 DOLLARS. This is a dumn but interesting idea. I like how this is going. It would be cool to test out new online games for a day on my ps3...oops...online network is down. lol.

 

[tonylukac]

Great for Techspot readers!

 

[Guest]

"THIS IS GREAT!!! NOW PEOPLE CAN RIP THE GAMES OFF THE DISC'S AND PUT THEM ON THEIR COMPUTERS FOR ONLY 2 DOLLARS. This is a dumn but interesting idea."

You're acting as if this is something new. Game rentals have been available for years, just not from Redbox until now (I assume). And your argument isn't just applicable to games, you can just as easily copy a DVD, or a VHS tape before that, or if you're really determined you could photocopy a book from the library before video rental stores.

 

[Guest]

" You're acting as if this is something new. Game rentals have been available for years, just not from Redbox until now (I assume). And your argument isn't just applicable to games, you can just as easily copy a DVD, or a VHS tape before that, or if you're really determined you could photocopy a book from the library before video rental stores. "

Ya no sh*t dumn*ss. But now its even easier. That all i was saying. No need to be a ***** about it.

 

[Omnislip]

Guest said:
THIS IS GREAT!!! NOW PEOPLE CAN RIP THE GAMES OFF THE DISC'S AND PUT THEM ON THEIR COMPUTERS FOR ONLY 2 DOLLARS. This is a dumn but interesting idea. I like how this is going. It would be cool to test out new online games for a day on my ps3...oops...online network is down. lol.

In the UK it's illegal to do rent PC games. Only console ones, which are *supposed* to have anti copy measures, are you allowed to rent.

 

[Omnislip]

tonylukac said:
Great for Techspot readers!

Except I reckon most Techspot readers are PC gamers.

And the article explicitly says PC games are not rentable.

 

[Vrmithrax]

Rental of PC games won't ever happen like this. PC games haven't been rentable (that I've seen) since the late 80s - early 90s. Too complicated in a DRM scheme, and too much installation required made it less than feasible as games got bigger and bigger. It's not like with consoles, where the game resides on the disc, not on the drive (assuming it's not a digitally purchased console game, of course).

And, as far as the console and the "great now they can copy them" argument... As was already mentioned, you can rent games now in a variety of locations, so it's nothing new. Of course, to use copied games, you need a modded console, which means you'll likely get your system banned from your online connection (Xbox Live, PSN, etc). To complain about making it easier for pirates to rent and copy, rather than applauding making it easier for regular people to rent and enjoy... Kinda sad, really.