This is a follow up to my article in 2o2p Magazine #3 where I discussed why renting is going to become more mainstream in the age of $60 titles.
In this article I’m going to review five rental methods I have personally used. They are the in-store options: Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and the online options: Gamefly.com, Gameznflix.com and Gotaplay.com.
This all seems well and good until you actually create an account. Instead of giving you a 14-day free trial, you’re billed the first month on signup and given a ‘grace period’ to back out of the service. Your money will be refunded. I personally don’t like that, but there were no problems getting the refund processed when I did back out.
My biggest complaint was where I had a queue of about ten 360 games and the site didn’t ship me a single game! I had a good mixture of launch titles and new releases. I didn’t get anything during my ‘grace period’ at all! So I absolutely cannot recommend this service. You could pay monthly fees and not get anything for your money. I’m not sure how this failure could occur other than its inventory isn’t large enough to satisfy demand.
This site has a variety of plans, one of which includes the cheapest I’ve seen for a one-outstanding-rental-at-a-time service:
Gameznflix.com also has four distribution centers across the USA to help get titles to you faster.
There are some quirks with this service, though. The 14-day free trial only lets you rent certain titles, so I had to sign up to be a paying member to rent any 360 games. This vendor limits the number of titles that can be in your queue based upon the type of account you have. I rarely see a title in my queue that’s available because they’re all on ‘short wait.’ The plus side to this service is that something usually ships within a few days of your returning a movie or game. I find the shipping times are pretty long, though, since titles ship from whatever warehouse has your title, which is not necessarily the warehouse closest to you.
The queue management for keeping a mix of movies and games is a bit of a challenge. If you want to use the service strictly for video games or movies then this single queue system works perfectly. If you have a three-disc service and want two movies and one game out at all times, it can take a lot of queue tweaking and a bit of luck to get this to occur. Games, typically, are out much longer than movies so it’s hard to predict if you will get a game after your next return. It would be better for a service that offers both games and movies to let you divide your queue up into both categories and set a ratio of what you want out.
Gameznflix.com offers a ‘buy’ option. This allows the renter to purchase the game from them - used - for $64 a game. Why someone would pay more money for a used copy than a new copy is beyond me. Someone with too much spare money, I suppose.
Gamefly works like the rest of the online rental stores. You add games to your queue from the catalog and Gamefly ships it to you in the same envelope you use to return the game. This service offers four plans:
Gamefly also offers a 10-day or 14-day free trial so you can test drive the service before you buy. The 10-day trial seems to be the standard, but you can pretty easily find promotional codes online for a 14-day trial. Judging by the speed of availability and how quickly titles ship, Gamefly also appears to have the largest game inventory. I had 10 games in my queue which were a mix of old and new titles. I got FightNight Round 3 the day it came out and two older games (King Kong and College Hoops) during my free trial period, which I considered impressive. All three titles shipped right away.
I also really liked the Gamefly feature that allows you to buy the rental from them at a discount. The discount is way better than you’d find at EB or GameStop. I had FightNight Round 3 for a week and I was the first one to rent it. The ‘keep it’ price was $47.95. So that would have been a great deal on a pre-owned game that was only rented by me. If you choose to buy a game, they will ship you, as a member, the case and booklet free of charge. You can also buy used games on Gamefly if you’re not a member at great prices, but shipping is around $2.00.
There are a few downsides to the Gamefly service. This is the most expensive option for online game rentals. Someone has to pay for all the advertising and the larger quantity of stocked titles. Gamefly ships out of California, so if you’re on the East Coast somewhere, it can take seven days to get your discs. To help combat this issue, it has a ‘fast return’ shipping method. Theoretically, your return is scanned at the post office and Gamefly ships you the next available title right away rather than waiting for it to be physically returned. The problem is that a lot of post offices either don’t have the equipment or just don’t bother scanning the discs. But it’s a nice idea when it works.
If you are going to totally rely on renting most games then you should go with the Gamefly service. Gamefly has the selection and quantity to get the games in your hands. The ‘Keep It’ and ‘Fast Shipping’ features are miles ahead of the competition. Gamefly is the current market leader in this space right now. Be prepared to spend a few bucks more a month to help them keep it that way.
Tank
In this article I’m going to review five rental methods I have personally used. They are the in-store options: Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and the online options: Gamefly.com, Gameznflix.com and Gotaplay.com.
Hollywood Video and Blockbuster
My experience with Hollywood Video and Blockbuster were similar, so I lump these stores together. Each shop has a very limited selection of titles and small quantities of the titles they do have stocked. Blockbuster is a good alternative if you are a member of their online movie rental service because you get two free rentals a month that can be used for games. Rental duration was the same for both companies in my area: seven days outstanding. This time limit is good for a disposable game (the type you’re probably renting anyway, otherwise you probably own it.) Overall the selection of titles you can rent is so poor that, unless you frequently go there to rent movies, I wouldn’t waste the gas to go to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video to rent an Xbox 360 game.
Gotaplay.com
Gotaplay.com looks good on the surface. It’s got a cheap plan starting at $12.95/month and has six distribution centers across the USA. It also offers a money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with the service. The service is just like similar online movie rental places; you browse through the catalog and place things in your queue. It ships you the first games that are available from your queue. The games arrive in a sleeve which you also use to return the game, and you can keep the game as long as you’re paying your monthly fees. It offers three plans:- One game outstanding: $12.95/mo.
- Two games outstanding: $20.95/mo.
- Three games outstanding: $28.95/mo.
This all seems well and good until you actually create an account. Instead of giving you a 14-day free trial, you’re billed the first month on signup and given a ‘grace period’ to back out of the service. Your money will be refunded. I personally don’t like that, but there were no problems getting the refund processed when I did back out.
My biggest complaint was where I had a queue of about ten 360 games and the site didn’t ship me a single game! I had a good mixture of launch titles and new releases. I didn’t get anything during my ‘grace period’ at all! So I absolutely cannot recommend this service. You could pay monthly fees and not get anything for your money. I’m not sure how this failure could occur other than its inventory isn’t large enough to satisfy demand.
Gameznflix.com
This store rents both games and movies, which is great. I had visions of rolling my online movie rental service and online video game service into one vendor.This site has a variety of plans, one of which includes the cheapest I’ve seen for a one-outstanding-rental-at-a-time service:
- One disc outstanding: $8.99/mo.
- Two discs outstanding: $12.99/mo.
- Three discs outstanding: $16.99/mo.
- Six discs outstanding: $249.00/year.
Gameznflix.com also has four distribution centers across the USA to help get titles to you faster.
There are some quirks with this service, though. The 14-day free trial only lets you rent certain titles, so I had to sign up to be a paying member to rent any 360 games. This vendor limits the number of titles that can be in your queue based upon the type of account you have. I rarely see a title in my queue that’s available because they’re all on ‘short wait.’ The plus side to this service is that something usually ships within a few days of your returning a movie or game. I find the shipping times are pretty long, though, since titles ship from whatever warehouse has your title, which is not necessarily the warehouse closest to you.
The queue management for keeping a mix of movies and games is a bit of a challenge. If you want to use the service strictly for video games or movies then this single queue system works perfectly. If you have a three-disc service and want two movies and one game out at all times, it can take a lot of queue tweaking and a bit of luck to get this to occur. Games, typically, are out much longer than movies so it’s hard to predict if you will get a game after your next return. It would be better for a service that offers both games and movies to let you divide your queue up into both categories and set a ratio of what you want out.
Gameznflix.com offers a ‘buy’ option. This allows the renter to purchase the game from them - used - for $64 a game. Why someone would pay more money for a used copy than a new copy is beyond me. Someone with too much spare money, I suppose.
Gamefly.com
This is the ‘Netflix’ of online game rentals. Gamefly, by far, spends more money on advertising and inventory than any of its competition. This is also reflected in membership prices.Gamefly works like the rest of the online rental stores. You add games to your queue from the catalog and Gamefly ships it to you in the same envelope you use to return the game. This service offers four plans:
- One game outstanding: $14.95/mo.
- Two games outstanding: $21.95/mo
- Three games outstanding: $28.95/mo.
- Four games outstanding: $35.95/mo.
Gamefly also offers a 10-day or 14-day free trial so you can test drive the service before you buy. The 10-day trial seems to be the standard, but you can pretty easily find promotional codes online for a 14-day trial. Judging by the speed of availability and how quickly titles ship, Gamefly also appears to have the largest game inventory. I had 10 games in my queue which were a mix of old and new titles. I got FightNight Round 3 the day it came out and two older games (King Kong and College Hoops) during my free trial period, which I considered impressive. All three titles shipped right away.
I also really liked the Gamefly feature that allows you to buy the rental from them at a discount. The discount is way better than you’d find at EB or GameStop. I had FightNight Round 3 for a week and I was the first one to rent it. The ‘keep it’ price was $47.95. So that would have been a great deal on a pre-owned game that was only rented by me. If you choose to buy a game, they will ship you, as a member, the case and booklet free of charge. You can also buy used games on Gamefly if you’re not a member at great prices, but shipping is around $2.00.
There are a few downsides to the Gamefly service. This is the most expensive option for online game rentals. Someone has to pay for all the advertising and the larger quantity of stocked titles. Gamefly ships out of California, so if you’re on the East Coast somewhere, it can take seven days to get your discs. To help combat this issue, it has a ‘fast return’ shipping method. Theoretically, your return is scanned at the post office and Gamefly ships you the next available title right away rather than waiting for it to be physically returned. The problem is that a lot of post offices either don’t have the equipment or just don’t bother scanning the discs. But it’s a nice idea when it works.
Conclusion
Which service did I choose? I use Gameznflix.com even though it does not offer the highest quality services. I use it because it is the cheapest option for one outstanding game at a time. I only play disposable games on rental, so usually a Friday to Sunday gaming session on a game will yield most, if not all, the 360 achievement points. The three-disk service doesn’t seem to be worthwhile given Gameznflix.com has so few 360 titles along with an unusually long ship time. With those lacking features, the three-disk service seems to be a rip-off.If you are going to totally rely on renting most games then you should go with the Gamefly service. Gamefly has the selection and quantity to get the games in your hands. The ‘Keep It’ and ‘Fast Shipping’ features are miles ahead of the competition. Gamefly is the current market leader in this space right now. Be prepared to spend a few bucks more a month to help them keep it that way.
Tank
