Will renting video games save you money?
Most people are familiar with Redbox. The crimson kiosks have become synonymous with convenient movie rentals. In 2011, Redbox officially began renting games nationwide. Should you decide to rent a game, it will cost you $3 per day. Now, if you look at that versus the traditional $60 you’ll spend on a new release, $3 doesn’t seem very reasonable.
Say what?
Look at this way. Spend $60 and you get the game forever. In order to rent the game for a year, you’d need to spend $1,095. That’s about an 1800% increase. It isn’t difficult to see the savings. The argument could be made that games can be played through quickly and returned, saving the individual a significant amount of money. This doesn’t factor in online use, however.
Online gaming is gaming. More and more emphasis is being placed on an individual’s ability to do battle with another person on a virtual battlefield. Factoring in the trends of games going further in the online direction, renting seems even less of a viable option. If you’re a parent, you already know that no child has ever just picked up a game once and that was it.
At best, renting can be used as a starting point to see if you like a new franchise, but by no means is it wise to rely on renting for your gaming needs. And, considering that one to three years might pass before the next iteration in a game franchise is released, your rental bills could be astronomical.
All that said, when it comes to games, renting is not the way to go. The trends in the gaming market don’t permit it.
