As expected, Redbox today started offering video game rentals at more than 21,000 of its vending machine locations in the US. Renting a video game will set you back $2 per day, complementing Redbox's current $1 DVD and $1.50 Blu-ray daily rental prices. Thankfully, you can reserve your copy online before heading down to your nearest Redbox kiosk and picking up a copy.
Unfortunately, Redbox is only offering video game rentals for consoles at launch (that's right: no Windows or Mac games). The company has games across the three major console platforms: the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, and the Sony PlayStation 3. Video game titles range from top releases to popular family and kids titles. You can see a list of games over at Redbox.com/games - at the time of writing, there were 62 titles available.
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 in full force.
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 still puts renting a game for a weekend or even a whole week on the cheap side.