As happens often when we record a fresh Skirmish of EpicBattleCry, sometimes we have a discussion topic that doesn’t make it into the show simply because of time constraints. This past week, when features writer, Lorin Baumgarten joined us for EBC Skirmish 86, we discussed the news that Blockbuster will begin offering games as part of their discs-by-mail program. Lorin did some research on the matter and discovered some interesting facts about the new initiative which spawned quite the discussion regarding what this will mean for big blue, dedicated game services like GameFly, and ultimately gamers.
So, strap in, fire it up, and punch yourself in the face, we’ve got EBC On Tap!
Stay sharp!
there’s a company in the UK who have been doing exactly this for a couple years now except they’re actually pretty good but they do a monthly subscription fee.
they have a few different packages but it’s overall pretty good value, i pay £8 a mnth and for that i get 4 discs a mnth and 4hrs of online streaming. but the real kicker is that you don’t have to return anything within any given time. if i were to rent a game i could hold on to it until i’m done with it and i’ll still have 3 other discs to watch or play whatever, per mnth.
what i don’t know is how soon games become available. lorin made the point however that there are only a few games i have to play on launch day, but if i was to explore the ps2 back catalogue for example it would be a great option.
what i’m trying to say is that one company does it properly and another manages to totally balls it up. WTF? no wonder Blockbuster almost went down the pan
i read that they just went bankrupt, is this their way out?
Why don’t people just play the demos, say this game sucks or is great, then either by the game or don’t. Renting is fine, bu then when someone wants to own the game they can’t really.
As a subscriber to gamefly, I might check this out, the 90 day delay doesn’t matter much to me as I use gamefly to check out games I don’t want to buy, but have a mild interest in, or heard it was good by word of mouth. And to date only a few games have been sent to me within 1 month of their release. The decrease in shipping time would be a bonus as I only have the 1 disc plan.
I agree with JadedSheamus. I don’t think a lot of people use a service like GameFly or Blockbuster exclusively. They buy the games they really like, and rent the games they’re not sure about.
Am I completely wrong on that?
This is great for gamers who don’t know about gamefly, but this doesn’t effect me cause’ I live right down the road from a blockbuster and it’s of no inconvenience for me to just travel the half-mile and pick up a game. On a side note, if all the stuff I hear about them going bankrupt is true then I’m boned because their how I game on the cheap.
PLEASE DON’T DIE BLOCKBUSTER!!!
to quote Janine Melnitz from Ghostbusters “This is a sign alright, going out of business.” The same thing happened with Movie Gallery when they tried their power play program which is very similar to this blockbuster program except theirs was in store only. Netflix and Gamefly have already has this market cornered on the disc by mail and for digital distribution of movies and games. This is blockbuster going through their death throws. In-store rental is dead.
Im with brent on this one. I wasn’t even really interested in this when i first saw it. and the whole 3 months delay, nooo thanks
This is really great information. All things considered I am a college student so I usually dont get to play all the games I want to play when they are released, so having a option where I can rent games for a cheap price is a pretty good deal to me. Also I have tried gamefly and the most annoying thing to me was the shipping time and if blockbuster can reduce the shipping time then I am going to strongly consider it as a option for games.
I used to work in a Blockbusters store in England and their online policies have always conflicted against those in store. Yes, recieving rentals in the post for a set fee, if you rent often, has many pros but brick and mortar stores still exist because nothing can replace that “experience”. In terms of the policies regarding their new online venture it just goes to show that, as a company, they still have no clue in how to successfully cater to their customers and what they actually want. The 90 day delay is ridiculous when people can just get off of their lazy backsides and rent it from a store. Besides, by that time, the buzz surrounding a game will have died and there will be a new one released you will have to wait 90 days for. Go figure.
i used to be a manager at blockbuster, and if this is like any of their other new programs, it will be a great deal for a while–as far as cost for the consumer goes–and then in a few months, they’ll jack the price and lower the value. It’ll go from 3 discs for 20 to 1. They did the same thing with total access, slowly whittling it down with fewer and fewer options and access, while raising the price behind the consumers’s back. They unveil new programs at a great value to undercut the competition at first but cannot sustain the low prices because they have to keep the stores open as well, unlike their competition.
I also noticed the other day that my local redbox had changed to Blockbuster, and it was out of order.
I use gamefly to buy and rent games.
If it’s new game like Red Dead Redemtion that looks really good, but a new IP, I don’t mind waiting the 3 days of shipping. It’s either pay $60 at the store or about $45 at gamefly. There are times when I’ll just go to the store and buy it the day of release, but those are games I know will be good.
Also, the GameFly shipping dates may differ for people. When a new game comes out and I get the confirmation email that it’s been shipped, I usually receive the game within 2-3 days. When I return a game it may be 3-4 days till I get the confirmation email from gamefly that they have received it.
If I wasn’t married with Netflix already I would be all over this. Subsequently my wife likes movies more than video games (shocker). It’ll be interesting to see how Gamefly reacts.
Blockbusters probably wont go bankrupt. Even if they do itll be chapter 11 so customers wont be affected in any way
The one reason that BB is worth checking out for this mail thing is that Bluray and games are no extra charge. Bluray is extra charge for me for my Netflix so Im thinking of switching and giving BB a try.
This sounds like a good deal to me. It’s cheaper than both Netflix and Gamefly, it sucks balls that you can’t rent new games but I have all three systems so I definitely cant afford all the games for each system. There is a huge back catalog of games that I haven’t played so If I were to do any mail subscription deal this would be it.
holy crap!I dodged a huge bullet,just today (mere hours ago) I went to blockbuster to get a pre-order deal on Halo reach someone there had told me about,they also told me
about this new service (not the 90 day bullshit of course)
and I almost set it up,luckily my e-mail had been used and I couldn’t think of any other working one’s so I left saying I’d be back to set it up later, fuck that, I’ll stick to the In-store until redbox takes over.
Blockbuster can die…sorry, they’re movie renting policies have gotten worse and worse as the years has gone by. Their by mail service went from enticing compared to Netflix to down right laughable.
Now this is how they want to enter the game market, with all of their bankruptcy issues, I only see this as another nail in their coffin, in fact, perhaps this little venture has put them further into the red… box…. redbox (cause they are hurting BB’s business big time).
I don’t see the point in renting games.I either like the game and buy it new or I just don’t care about the title.If I find myself in the middle I just watch more videos,gameplay footage and make a decision.
how do you not see the point in renting games, i dont feel like buying every game i want to play thats why i have gamefly. i buy certain games (cod, fallout, dragon age, ff13) but rent other games im either not sure if ill like (red dead, ufc), will only play once (bioshock, demons souls), or games i just wanna try (mod nation, metroid). and its considerably cheaper than buying everything. ive rented about 5 games in the last 2 months from gamefly. 20$ a month or 300$ + tax from buying every game.
For a guy like me I don’t buy many games unless it brings enough value for purchase thats why I have gamefly, and I dont buy movies at all because they useally end up on cable 2-3 months after dvd release thats why I have netflx. In terms of priceing for the two I think its fair in terms of the the high quality you get in return. For example you can use netflx virtually anywhere lets not forget the huge library of instant stream movies and with gamefly at least I know ima get a new release shipped out the same day it comes out and the used games priceing is a fair trade off all on its on especially since they come with unused thing like EA codes for the game and whatever bonus code that comes with it and free shipping.
In my opinion this is not gonna work, The fact is you gotta wait 3 months just to play a new game and the movie selection is ok ut in terms of quality blockbuster just cant win. I mean why buy 3 100watt light bulbs for 20cent less when you can get 1 300watt environment safe light bulb for 20 cents more.
gamefly 1 month out (8-12) games in 1 month for me
netflix (12- 16) not including instant streaming