Renting Games By Mail

[Twyford]

I'm have to say I'm not very impressed with Boomerang. I signed up for the trial a fortnight ago, it took them 3 days to dispatch the first game, after I had over 20 games in my wishlist spread between the PS2, PSP and 360, that game took a further 2 days to arrive. I returned that game last Friday, which they say I am still renting, 3 working days later

I know the postal service can be a bit slow sometimes but I will be lucky to have rented 2 games in the 21 day trial period. All the DVD rental services I have used are usually far faster than this.

Anyone else having "problems"?

[Venice Cull]

This may seem a daft question, but how is this legal?

Video rental libraries have to purchase their films at an inflated cost don't they? Isn't the rental maket seen as a 'legitimate' profit centre for film studios because of this?

Blockbuster rent out games, but that's with the permission of the publishers (I believe).

Not complaining, like, just wondering.

[BoggyB]

I assume the online rental places pay more for the games to get a license to rent them out.

It seems one of my rentals from swapgame has gone missing in the post. This should be fun.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Video rental libraries have to purchase their films at an inflated cost don't they? Isn't the rental maket seen as a 'legitimate' profit centre for film studios because of this?

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I always thought that was just the price at the time. The movie company release a 'rental' DVD for 50 quid (or whatever) and six month later releases the retail version for 17 quid. The rental company has no choice. I'm not sure there's any actual rental agreement. I could be wrong.

Games are released at the 'inflated' price anyway.

[MrPogo]

I always thought that was just the price at the time.   The movie company release a 'renta' DVD for 50 quid (or whatever) and six month later releases the retail version for 17 quid.    The rental company has no choice.   I'm not sure there's any actual rental agreement.   I could be wrong.

Games are released at the 'inflated' price anyway.

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That explanation gave me a scary vision of the future (drawing parallels with the cinema - DVD movie route), where arcades consist of 'pay to play' home consoles that new releases reside solely in for six months before being available at retail.

[Venice Cull]

I always thought that was just the price at the time.   The movie company release a 'renta' DVD for 50 quid (or whatever) and six month later releases the retail version for 17 quid.  

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As far as I'm aware film rental places get their DVDs at the same time as the commercial (public) release though, and they still have to purchase from the publishers at inflated prices.

[Ste Pickford]

Sounds incredibly difficult to police!

[ModoX]

I'm have to say I'm not very impressed with Boomerang.  I signed up for the trial a fortnight ago, it took them 3 days to dispatch the first game, after I had over 20 games in my wishlist spread between the PS2, PSP and 360, that game took a further 2 days to arrive.  I returned that game last Friday, which they say I am still renting, 3 working days later 

I know the postal service can be a bit slow sometimes but I will be lucky to have rented 2 games in the 21 day trial period.  All the DVD rental services I have used are usually far faster than this. 

Anyone else having "problems"?

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Do Boomerang send their stuff First Class? I'm on Swapgame and I've had no problems, with everything going First Class it gets there the day after you post it, and gets to you the day after they post it. They did take a couple of days when I first signed up, but then I only had 360 games on my list.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Do Boomerang send their stuff First Class?

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Yes. My first game from the arrived the day after despatch.

[teacup]

I assume the online rental places pay more for the games to get a license to rent them out.

It seems one of my rentals from swapgame has gone missing in the post. This should be fun.

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I've had a game go missing wih swapgame too, wasn't too much of a hassle tho. They wait 10 days before they do anything about it, but there wasn't much fuss and I whinged and got the 10 days worth refunded again. Pretty good service allround really, just really slow site.

[Guest jabberwock1977]

I always thought that was just the price at the time.  The movie company release a 'rental' DVD for 50 quid (or whatever) and six month later releases the retail version for 17 quid.    The rental company has no choice.  I'm not sure there's any actual rental agreement.  I could be wrong.

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That used to be the case but things changed in the last few years with the advent of DVD - now there is "two-tier pricing" with different prices for rental and retail copies released simultaneosly.

[therealjohnpeat]

As I've mentioned before here - I signed up with Swapgame before Christmas - for Gamecube and (mainly) DS titles - and I've been VERY disappointed...

Their website is SHIT - as has been said - how a company who's business revolves around a website can continue with one so slow is beyond me - their endless claims to be 'upgrading it' have been going on since forever it seems too, which isn't a good sign.

I could have lived with that if they had any games to send out tho - my first 2 games came super-quick and I was well pleased - however once they were returned, only 1 game was sent out (I was on a 2 game plan) so I queried it.

"Oh - it was a mistake - we'll send your other game ASAP" - and THREE days later something from the bottom of the list was posted...

So I returned those 2 and waited

and waited

and waited

So I added a PS2 title into the list as a 'test' and **BANG** it's posted next day...

So they don't actually HAVE any of the 18 DS or Gamecube games I've listed - I don't want PS2/XBOX titles cos I can rent those from Blockies anytime y'see - so this is really not panning-out.

I raised it again with them and the denied their lack of DS/GC titles - in fact they said that 'several' of my listed titles were in stock but that their system had 'chosen' to send me the PS2 game at the BOTTOM of my list *coughs* - yeah, fuck you very much...

Cancelled that then!!

Shame - cos it's a good idea in principle - if I had a 360 I'd probably sign up with one of the other companies simply because £50 is laughable for a game (and the local stores don't stock em anyway cos they reckon stocking games for a console they can't sell is pointless and I see where they're coming from there!!) - but I don't, so...

One biggish potential downside to renting by post is getting the blame for someone else damaging the games of course - or their loss in the post or whatever.

ALWAYS return them at a Post Office and get proof-of-posting - when you sign up you give them carte-blanche to charge your credit card what they feel like so it's worth the effort even though proof-of-posting is not legally proof-of-receipt...

[therealjohnpeat]

On the business side of this - DVDs do, currently, have 2-tier pricing for rental - with rental copies clearly marked and often bereft of additional discs/extra features (to promote retail sales I suppose) despite costing over £30+VAT.

This is coming to an end however - a number of the major players have finally realised - about 2 years too late - that the DVD Rental market is close-to-dead, and are dropping their rental prices to retail-levels (the first major title I've seen which supports this "Lord of War")

Presumably they'll be trimming extra-discs and features even more of course - but whatever, I think it's too late - DVD rental is almost a dead market - if Blockbuster go under (which many people think could happen) that will nail it.

No idea what the deal with games is tho.

Once-upon-a-time the deal was that Sony required you to enter into rental contract with them which was based on splitting takings with an upfront cost - this resulted in your getting marked "rental" discs etc - but that all stopped a few years ago - before PS2 even AFAIK

Nintendo have long had a "no rentals matey" policy too - and given that Swapgame seem to be the only ones renting Ninty product - perhaps this is still the case for most people!

[NumberSix]

It's a nice idea, based on the whole netflix thing, but ultimately a flawed concept IMO.  Games cost far more for an online venture to buy in for resale than DVD's, and the turnaround time with customers is much longer.  So, they'll need a proportionately larger investment to have enough copies of new games (which they have to buy at premium prices) and before long sequelitus will have reduced their stock to a very low value.  The margins can't be pretty, and the competition is fierce.

So, just don't sign up for any more than a month at a time is my advice.  Just in case.

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I've been using www.gamefly.com for a few months now, and have nothing but good things to say about them. The latest releases do sometimes have a little wait, but I've always managed to get my 2nd or 3rd choice. I've got 40 games in my queue... two out at a time for the price of half a game a month. Games I really like I can buy off them for a reduced price (guaranteed to work, plus you've had a chance to take a look at the cd before you buy). All formats, loads of games, really quick shipping. I like 'em a lot.

[Avuncular]

I used to work in an independent computer shop in the early nineties. We used to rent out games. With the Mega Drive and Master System games we used to buy them in as if we were going to sell them but then we paid Sega £5 each for holographic Sega stickers to stick on the ones for rent.

[Ste Pickford]

I used to work in an independent computer shop in the early nineties. We used to rent out games. With the Mega Drive and Master System games we used to buy them in as if we were going to sell them but then we paid Sega £5 each for holographic Sega stickers to stick on the ones for rent.

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What would have happened if you didn't buy the sticker, and just rented the game without the sticker?

Presumably nobody would care other than Sega, and I can't imagine Sega employing snoops to check all the games at all the indie rental stores up and down the country.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Its interesting that Sega were getting rental revenue but not the publishers or developers.

[Mercury]

Just signed up to Boomerang. There is no way I am taking a punt on a £40 game so this is ideal.

[therealjohnpeat]

To answer Ste's question on 'policing'.

Rental DVDs are clearly marked on the boxes - but far more usefully, there is usually a BIG LOUD BRIGHT NOTICE at the start of the movie which says

"If you rented this - ring 0800 xxxxxxx and grass the fucker up for cash"

Doesn't happen with games of course - but I imagine that publishers will, from time to time, check that all rental companies are complying with whatever deals are in place and not renting the 'wrong' items...

Secret Shoppers FTW!

Reality is that they're unlikely to get caught-out unless they flagrantly abuse the system - however the offence, if they are caught even once, is copyright infringement and I'm sure the lawyers will be baying for a big payoff by "assuming" they were absuing 100% and demanding royalties accordingly...

e.g. it's not worth the risk to a high-profile company...

[therealjohnpeat]

Couple of things I would say about Swapgame - to their credit - is that they

1 ) do reply to emails fairly quickly

2 ) acknowledge returns VERY quickly - usually before 10am the day after return

3 ) post things quickly when they have them

All of that 'could' simply be down to them not actually being very busy tho I guess

[ModoX]

Couple of things I would say about Swapgame - to their credit - is that they

1 ) do reply to emails fairly quickly

2 ) acknowledge returns VERY quickly - usually before 10am the day after return

3 ) post things quickly when they have them

All of that 'could' simply be down to them not actually being very busy tho I guess

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Yeah, I'd agree with that. I've been signed up to DVD rentals from both Blockbuster and Amazon before and I can't say I've noticed a difference in service between those and Swapgame. The main gripe with SG is the speed (or lack thereof) of their website. They did some upgrade thing somewhere near the start of the new year though and it does actually seem to have worked a bit.

[Mercury]

Been quite impressed so far. First game was despatched within 24 hours of registration. They sent the second game on my list and it arrived next day. Disc is in good condition. No instructions though - I thought they might include a little slip that at least included the controls - no biggie as you can check in game.

[ModoX]

Been quite impressed so far. First game was despatched within 24 hours of registration. They sent the second game on my list and it arrived next day. Disc is in good condition. No instructions though - I thought they might include a little slip that at least included the controls - no biggie as you can check in game.

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If you're on about SwapGame, then you can apparently go to the game on their website and get the manual, in pdf or something presumably. I've never used it but I'm 98% sure I've read that it's the case.

[Mercury]

If you're on about SwapGame, then you can apparently go to the game on their website and get the manual, in pdf or something presumably. I've never used it but I'm 98% sure I've read that it's the case.

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Sorry, I was talking about Boomerang.

[BoggyB]

Swapgame need to send me a form to fill in about the missing game (by recorded delivery so I wont be able to get the bloody thing for a while) before they'll send any more games.

Hassletastic.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Just had my third game (Perfect Dark) sent out by Boomerang - 24 hours after receiving the first one back.

I dumped the free trial and went to the paid sub cos I wanted to be able to keep one game at all times.

The service seems to be pretty good so far. Their website is rubbish though - very slow and keeps just failing altogether (page not found etc.).

If it keeps up like this it's a great way to play loads of games for minimal outlay. I'm also trying out games I would never have bothered with otherwise which can only be a good thing.

Another thing that struck me is I'm not that bothered if a game turns out to be a dud. I can just send it back and move on to the next one. I've had a few hours of entertainment (of sorts) from Kameo. I don't feel massively inclined to see any more but I don't have that crushing feeling you get when you buy a game and (eventually) admit to yourself you've wasted your money.

[node]

Does anywhere not do the unlimited rentals crap? I'd rather pay one by one, last time I tried this with DVDs I didn't rent nearly enough to make it worth while.

[OuttaHere]

Does anywhere not do the unlimited rentals crap? I'd rather pay one by one, last time I tried this with DVDs I didn't rent nearly enough to make it worth while.

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I haven't seen a site that does this but Boomerang do a 2 games per month for £7.99 which I think that I will change to. I'm currently on the 21 day trial which will transfer to the £9.99 per month unlimited rentals but I don't think I'd get the most out of a game in such a sort time, unless I really didn't like it and sent it straight back. But as that larger than average chap says on Consolevania, you can derive some enjoyment from pretty much ever game.

I echo JPickford's points exactly (although I liked Kameo). I've really rate boomerang from my short trial and will definitely be subscribing to their service. The biggest downside to me is that there appears to be no way to view the manual. Is there a site I can go to view manuals?

[Mercury]

Just had my third game (Perfect Dark) sent out by Boomerang - 24 hours after receiving the first one back. 

I dumped the free trial and went to the paid sub cos I wanted to be able to keep one game at all times. 

The service seems to be pretty good so far.  Their website is rubbish though - very slow and keeps just failing altogether (page not found etc.).

If it keeps up like this it's a great way to play loads of games for minimal outlay.  I'm also trying out games I would never have bothered with otherwise which can only be a good thing.

Another thing that struck me is I'm not that bothered if a game turns out to be a dud.  I can just send it back and move on to the next one.  I've had a few hours of entertainment (of sorts) from Kameo.  I don't feel massively inclined to see any more but I don't have that crushing feeling you get when you buy a game and (eventually) admit to yourself you've wasted your money.

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Their website is atrocious but once you have your wants list set-up you don't need to use it much. It will hopefully improve over time anyway. I am liking the service so far. I have FIFA at the moment and having a bit of fun with it. I'd have been gutted paying 40 or 50 quid for it but for £4 for a couple of weeks it's cool.

[Mercury]

The Boomerang website really is terrible. Just been trying to find Full Auto and it is all over the shop. Turns out it isn't listed anyway - grrrrr. Just returned my first game to them so it'll be interesting to see how quickly they turn around the next one.