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Game Rental Service - Do you use one ?

MRU

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 23, 2005
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a better place
Today I signed up for a 14 day 'free' trial of a newly launched game rental service for Ireland. As an owner of all the consoles & handhelds - I spend a small fortune on games each month, and I realise that the majority of these games end up sitting on my shelves gathering dust after a week or two, so I thought I'd try a different angle.

With PS3 games still €70 ($100) here, and 360 & Wii around €55-60, I probably spend €150-200 per month on games.

The rental service offer me 2 games at a time / unlimited time for €25 per month. Which when compared to my current output seems very good value.


Is anyone else using a rental service and what do you think about it. Obviously I can't directly compare - I'm just wondering if anyone else is doing this ?

Do you miss not 'owning' the game ? or does the financial saving more than make up for it ?
 
We used to be with Screen Select (or Love Film as they're called now). I think it was £15 a month with 3 rentals per week. I only played a handful of games through them and the service went crappy soon after so we dropped them.

I'd prefer to own the game but I'm not buying many so it's not really a sting on the wallet.
 
Awesome to see another Irish macuser! I am living there myself. I have also been interested in joining a service like this, however they are pretty pricey...
 
I used Gamefly for about 2 months. I just sign up again whenever there are a lot of games I just want to try (usually Christmas time).
 
No...I rather purchase the games I want...I like having them around anytime I'm ready to play.

I was thinking about renting from Blockbuster since its real close to where I live....I just might take this route with all the crap coming out these days.


Bless
 
jackshiels said:
Awesome to see another Irish macuser! I am living there myself. I have also been interested in joining a service like this, however they are pretty pricey...
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There's a few of us here. :)

Father Jack, TBi, Whooleytoo and I've noticed a few new newbies such as yourself in the last couple of days.

:)

Slan
 
Just started up Gamefly, actually. I got Call of Duty 4 (which had a pretty spectacular single-player) and Uncharted (which I sent back after spending a couple of hours on it - the ridiculous number of gunfights completely killed the game for me, since it was the adventure aspects that drew me to it in the first place).

It's nice. Netflix for games.
 
gloss said:
the ridiculous number of gunfights completely killed the game for me, since it was the adventure aspects that drew me to it in the first place).
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Yeah that's my biggest criticism of the game too. some sections for me are just pure frustrating monotony.
 
Nope, I just usually only buy games that I've tried the demo and am pretty confident that I'm going to get my playtime out of. I'm a big fan of Call of Duty 4 because you can play forever online and not really get bored as there are so many different ways to go game. The only time I ever even attempted the campaign was one day when my Internet was down. Online games rock.
 
There are some games I just know I am going to buy. Then there are the games I'm not sure of, and these are the games I'd think about renting. Never got around to joining a service, and have only rarely gone to a B&M to rent a game. Now that we get a nice smattering of demo's available on Live and PSN, I usually just play the demo a few times and get the desire to purchase bled right out of me.;)
 
MacRumorUser said:
Yeah that's my biggest criticism of the game too. some sections for me are just pure frustrating monotony.
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It just strikes me as the polar opposite of the simple, focused elegance of something like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus. I don't know why I was expecting an experience on par with that, but I was.

I don't mind gunfights, but when it's the weakest aspect of your game there's no reason to throw wave after wave after wave of pirates into the game where, frankly, two or three individuals would suffice. It's just...annoying.
 
I'm resurrecting this thread because I was wondering today if there were any game rental services OTHER than GameFly? Just comparison shopping because GF's pricing seems just OK to me. I'd probably jump at a <$10/month 1 at time service, though...
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I'm resurrecting this thread because I was wondering today if there were any game rental services OTHER than GameFly? Just comparison shopping because GF's pricing seems just OK to me. I'd probably jump at a <$10/month 1 at time service, though...
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When I was looking at Gamefly I found Intelliflix. They used to do games and as an added bonus they do porn for those who enjoy that. They eliminated their games but they were rather inexpensive.

My problem with GF and all others is that I don't sit for countless hours and play games so in order to rent and beat them I'd be paying quite a bit and in the end have nothing to show for it. It was better for me to buy a new release, get sick of them and sell them for 25% off the original price. That way I'm actually paying less than GF's prices and I get to spend as much time as I wish playing.
 
As much as I like the idea of GameFly we pay way too much for the service versus what we actually use. We have 3 gaming pcs in the house + the wii/360/ps2 and our board games. We never really finish any of the games and the gamefly games end up just sitting there. I'm probably going to cancel it. I honestly only planned on using gamefly for testing games out to see if they're worth buying. Now, their game sales are great - usually 10-15% less than used via GameStop and the others.
 
Rental01 said:
As much as I like the idea of GameFly we pay way too much for the service versus what we actually use. We have 3 gaming pcs in the house + the wii/360/ps2 and our board games. We never really finish any of the games and the gamefly games end up just sitting there. I'm probably going to cancel it. I honestly only planned on using gamefly for testing games out to see if they're worth buying. Now, their game sales are great - usually 10-15% less than used via GameStop and the others.
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Kind of a funny story. I woke up the other day and my wife, who was just getting in bed (we have 6 week old baby) said she signed us up for gamefly account. Weird thing is she's NOT a games. She'll play Mario Party and maybe Kart sometimes but that's about it. I'm wondering if she's thinking the Wii might be more her thing...

Anyways I'll probably cancel it after a month or two and I've tried most of the bigger Wii games. At $16/month it doesn't really add up for me as I usually buy used games, so for $192 a year I can buy at least 5 games, more if I resell them when I'm done, which is more than I usually have time to play anyways.
 
I use Gamefly, and honestly it has worked out pretty well for me as I've saved quite a bit already. I used to buy all sorts of games, and just about all of them end up collecting dust never to be played again. I realized I was just throwing my money away doing this so I signed up for the service.

With the first two games I already save $120 that I would have spent buying them (360 games $60 each). I knew that buying new or used games and beating them after a week or two would end up just sitting there. You get ripped off giving them back to a Gamestop or EB games. With Gamefly I just play all the games I'd like; even ones I wouldn't have bought in the first place. For about $24/month it's not bad at all.

Think about it, just two 360/PS3/Wii games a month is already enough to justify the price, I play around 3-5 a month. Shoot, even if you only play one a month it's still better. One Wii game at $50 a pop is more expensive then all-you-can-eat Gamefly at $24, and you have two games at any given time.

Of course there's always games that you are going to buy anyways, and Gamefly offers very affordable prices that beat local retailers every time; so you save money that way too. It's the Netflix for games as Gloss has stated, which I also have and love, saved a ton of $$ on movies too!
 
I use Gamefly, and was considering quitting, but they added another shipping center, and now they are as fast as Netflix delivery.
 
I prefer to buy my games. I can go back and play them whenever I want and I don't have to wait for shipping times nor pay a monthly fee.

31 PS3 games and counting... (not including PSN bought games)
 
mrgreen4242 said:
Kind of a funny story. I woke up the other day and my wife, who was just getting in bed (we have 6 week old baby) said she signed us up for gamefly account. Weird thing is she's NOT a games. She'll play Mario Party and maybe Kart sometimes but that's about it. I'm wondering if she's thinking the Wii might be more her thing...

Anyways I'll probably cancel it after a month or two and I've tried most of the bigger Wii games. At $16/month it doesn't really add up for me as I usually buy used games, so for $192 a year I can buy at least 5 games, more if I resell them when I'm done, which is more than I usually have time to play anyways.
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For a family, Mario Party 8 is AWESOME. My whole family can sit around and blow 4 hours on this game.
 
Well, I'm already going cancel GF and I've not even got my first game yet... Signed up on the 13th, supposedly shipped a game the 14th, it's now the 18th and NO GAME. Assuming it comes tomorrow, that I keep a game for just 5 days (not a very long time for most games), and it takes only 2 days to get back to their warehouse that would mean I'd be able to rent a whopping two and a half games per month (and only 12.5 days of that month would I actually have a game. For $16. Buying used games on eBay or Amazon, trading through Goozex, or even going to Gamestop is a better buy than this.
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I'd be able to rent a whopping two and a half games per month
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I agree that Gamefly can be a total ripoff if you're ship times are longer than necessary. I'm on the fence about keeping it, but just paid for a new month, so I have a few weeks to decide before getting charged again.
 
mrgreen4242 said:
Well, I'm already going cancel GF and I've not even got my first game yet... Signed up on the 13th, supposedly shipped a game the 14th, it's now the 18th and NO GAME. Assuming it comes tomorrow, that I keep a game for just 5 days (not a very long time for most games), and it takes only 2 days to get back to their warehouse that would mean I'd be able to rent a whopping two and a half games per month (and only 12.5 days of that month would I actually have a game. For $16. Buying used games on eBay or Amazon, trading through Goozex, or even going to Gamestop is a better buy than this.
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I use Gamefly, and while I'm probably not getting the most out of it I can, I like it. I tend to rent a video game and keep it for about 3 weeks to a month, long enough to beat it. Yes, I could just go to BlockBuster and save some money, but I like the obviously much larger selection on GF.
 
I use Love film for around £17 a month and i have had no problems at all, it takes about three days to get new ones sent to me and i have rented a lot of 360 games. So glad i did now because there has been a lot of rubbish lately.
 
I just go to Hollywood video. 2 games for 8 dollars with a printable coupon. Just save the PDF and you're good to go until next year's coupon comes out.
 
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