Online Video Game Rental Services

With renting video games online, players don't have to pay a past due fee if they miss the deadline, which is not the case when renting games from a store in your locality. Players can select the games they want, and the company sends the games by postal service. Moreover, the rental company mails the game in postage-paid envelope, so returning the game is as easy as dropping it in the mail.

The rental company stocks video games for a variety of consoles, such as Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation and Nintendo Wii. The company offers plans that only vary in the number of games that the player rent at a time. The casual gamer can rent only one game at a time, while the hardcore gamer can rent three games at a time. The player should choose a service that is close to his house, because if it is very far away from his house, the shipping time will be long. These services have a queue that shows all the games the player wants to rent in order.

Rental Services for Online Games

Online video game rental services offer free trial membership. The service also displays ratings given by ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) for video games. The ratings may be EC (Early Childhood, children over 3 years old), E (Everyone over 6 years old), E10+ (Everyone over 10 years old), T (Teens over 13 years old), M (Mature persons over 17 years old) and AO (Adults Only, persons over 18 years old). The games are available in different genres, such as first-person shooter games, role-playing games and racing games. The website should show video game trailers, which are advertisements for games that will be released in the future. The website also allows searching for video games, sorting the results by popularity. The shipping time cannot be more than three days. Some websites don't allow children under 13 years old, to see customer reviews of video games rated T, M or AO.

GameFly is the first online video game rental service. Each game page in GameFly has instructions, cheats, screenshots and videos. With GameFly, if the player rents a game and likes it a lot, he can choose the 'Keep It' option. This means that he buys the game at a used price known as the 'Pre-Played' price, and he is sent the original case and manual. GameFly also has a 'FastReturn' option if the player returns a game by U.S. Postal Service. In this case, GameFly sends the next available game even before the previous game has reached their warehouse. There is also a GameFly Rewards program that gives discounts on purchases, if the player rents games for three consecutive months. Then there is the GameFly Referral program, if a player persuades his friend to become a GameFly customer. There is also a GamePie Facebook application, which allows players to rate and recommend games, and make a wish list of games.

GottaPlay allows players to trade games. First, a player makes a list of games he has, and then he makes a list of games he wants. Then he can send a game to another player, and receives a game from the same player. A player needs a certain number of 'GamePoints' in order to receive a game from another player. A player can accumulate 'GamePoints' by sending a game to another player. 'GameKey' indicates the condition a game is in. It is GO if the player has the game only, GA if the player has the game and the artwork, GM if the player has the game and the manual, and GC if the player has the game, the artwork and the case. The system allots trades between players, who live near each other.

Online video game rental services have a promising future, because renting games online is less expensive than buying video games from retailers such as GameStop. They should pose a formidable challenge to brick-and-mortar stores, as Netflix has done to Blockbuster. The game has only just begun.