Unlimited Video Game Rentals

Video games make for a booming business that shows no signs of slowing down in the near future. The video game industry regularly pulls in more money per year than the entire Hollywood motion picture industry does at the box office. Despite the popularity of this interactive media and the enormous amount of revenue it creates, video games are still widely misunderstood and incorrectly characterized as child's play.

One of the reasons that the video game industry is able to rake in such huge amounts of revenue is the high price point set for most new console titles. A whopping $50 is the standard price for a new game disc designed for one of the three top next-generation consoles. This hefty price tag applies to most titles, regardless of quality or the hours of game play offered by the game.

Renting Might Be a Better Choice

One way to beat the high cost of gaming is to make a point to always try before you buy. Many gamers are young men with discretionary cash which they seem to be certain is burning a hole in their pockets. It is the gamers who get burned, however, if they waste 50 bucks on a derivative shooter or underwhelming movie tie-in. You would think it would only take one or two of these poor impulse purchases before gamers would start test-driving all their games, but this is not always the case.

Renting video games allows players to get a comprehensive feel for what a title has to offer, and not just fall victim to a shiny box cover. Having a few days to test out an unknown quantity makes sound economic sense, especially given the discount unlimited video game rentals available on the Internet. Many gamers report that renting games feels like auditioning the titles for the few coveted slots in their permanent collections.

Video stores have rented video games to their customers for quite some time now, with decidedly mixed results. More often than not, games are an afterthought at the typical corporate video stores, as their uneven supplies can attest. If you've ever seen ten copies of a lame platformer cluttering up the shelves of your local video hut every time you go in search of its one eternally checked-out copy of GTA, you can sympathize.

Games Shipped to Your Door

There are now online companies that rent video games using what is often referred to as the Netflix business model. Named after the successful online movie rental service, these companies rent video games to consumers by sending them directly to the homes of eager players. The best of these companies were created by gamers for gamers, and boast deep inventories of the hottest games while still maintaining a wide variety of titles.

The system typically works by setting up an individual account, the price of which is based on how many games the customer wants to be able to have checked out at one time. For one monthly fee, the customer rents as many games as he pleases, the only limit being how many he is allowed to have out at one time. As soon as a game is returned via mail in the pre-paid envelope, the next one is shipped straight to the gamer.

The convenience of this approach has converted many skeptics who never thought they would rent their games online. The monthly subscription fees are usually much less than the price of purchasing even one new game. For that flat fee, a player can test out an unlimited number of games, and buy only those that earn their rightful place in his library.