Poll of the Day > Is the video game industry glad rental stores are dying out?

(+) Yeah! (+)

No more playing through the latest Uncharted for two dollars.
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Perhaps not. Maybe the person who played through the latest Uncharted for $2 wouldn't have played at all if not for the rental.
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yes
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The video game industry is looking to an all-digital future. If you don't have to make anything physical and only have to sell data, that's a lot more profit in the company pocket.

I didn't think there were really any rental stores left, honestly. When Blockbuster went, that was pretty much the end of that. And the industry would really like to finish killing off Game Stop, at this point.
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I_Abibde posted...

If you don't have to make anything physical and only have to sell data

That's weird to think about, we're in the age where we are paying not paying for anything physical, just signals.
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darcandkharg31 posted...

I_Abibde posted...

If you don't have to make anything physical and only have to sell data

That's weird to think about, we're in the age where we are paying not paying for anything physical, just signals.

people have been paying to watch tv and movies for a long time, not weird to buy digital
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

people have been paying to watch tv and movies for a long time, not weird to buy digital

Yeah I already thought about that too, still seems weird to me with games. Like I do buy digital but like, this is so norm now it's not even a second thought, stuff changes quickly in a decade.
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Not big on all digital. But its not like I can do anything about it...
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All digital, but a 500 gig console. What a joke

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I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...
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LinkPizza posted...

Not big on all digital. But its not like I can do anything about it...

LinkPizza posted...

I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...

digital storage is much cheaper than physical space.
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VeeVees posted...

LinkPizza posted...

I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...

digital storage is much cheaper than physical space.

With physical, I never have to worry about space on my system. It takes up very little, if any at all. But with all digital, it will start costing more as Ill have to buy external memory. So, it would make digital more expensive for me...
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LinkPizza posted...

VeeVees posted...

LinkPizza posted...

I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...

digital storage is much cheaper than physical space.

With physical, I never have to worry about space on my system. It takes up very little, if any at all. But with all digital, it will start costing more as Ill have to buy external memory. So, it would make digital more expensive for me...

With digital you only need enough space to store what you are using. With physical you need to store everything even if you don't plan on using it anytime soon.
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VeeVees posted...

LinkPizza posted...

VeeVees posted...

LinkPizza posted...

I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...

digital storage is much cheaper than physical space.

With physical, I never have to worry about space on my system. It takes up very little, if any at all. But with all digital, it will start costing more as Ill have to buy external memory. So, it would make digital more expensive for me...

With digital you only need enough space to store what you are using. With physical you need to store everything even if you don't plan on using it anytime soon.

Maybe. But it doesnt cost any extra money to put a game case down anywhere. But it does cost money to buy extra digital storage. And how much digital storage depends on how much you want to play. I personally like to have many games ready, so I can switch whenever I need. But if I dont have enough room to digitally store them, Im out of luck. Which sucks. With physical, I can just bring them all. Especially with something like a switch or DS. So, it physical is still cheaper for me...
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Cotton_Eye_Joe posted...

No more playing through the latest Uncharted for two dollars.

No however folk do still buy pre owned and in sales. Also rental stores can be a good way to advertise your game as if someone tries it and likes it they might buy it where as without renting they might not even give the game a second thought. Even more so with "live service" games.
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wwinterj25 posted...

Cotton_Eye_Joe posted...

No more playing through the latest Uncharted for two dollars.

No however folk do still buy pre owned and in sales. Also rental stores can be a good way to advertise your game as if someone tries it and likes it they might buy it where as without renting they might not even give the game a second thought. Even more so with "live service" games.

That happened with the first Animal Crossing for me. I rented it one weekend, and played all weekend with my cousin. Afterwards, I bought the game. So, it did help people to purchase games sometimes. Usually younger people, I think. I know some of the older guys would rent a game, beat it that weekend, and return it without having to buy it...
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

people have been paying to watch tv and movies for a long time, not weird to buy digital

Stop defending a terrible practice just because you don't want to admit to being part of the problem.

All it will take is a virus to wipe out decade of digital media. Doesn't modern videogames weakness to physical erasure make you sad for the future generations who could potentially miss out on great art simply because game companies decided that art is a product service and stop offering physical prints to enhance their profits?

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i have no problem with digital, i'm not one of those idiots who misses out on games because they don't have a physical release
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LinkPizza posted...

VeeVees posted...

LinkPizza posted...

I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...

digital storage is much cheaper than physical space.

With physical, I never have to worry about space on my system. It takes up very little, if any at all. But with all digital, it will start costing more as Ill have to buy external memory. So, it would make digital more expensive for me...

physical uses the same storage space as digital
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

LinkPizza posted...

VeeVees posted...

LinkPizza posted...

I guess they might like that, too. With all digital, people will need more memory. Not only can you up the price a lot for more internal memory on the system, but you could sell a bunch of external memory, as well. Like how you can buy Nintendo Micro SDs, which are apparently like the normal SD cards, but cost twice the price because a mushroom or Star is on it...

digital storage is much cheaper than physical space.

With physical, I never have to worry about space on my system. It takes up very little, if any at all. But with all digital, it will start costing more as Ill have to buy external memory. So, it would make digital more expensive for me...

physical uses the same storage space as digital

Not that Ive seen. At least, on my Switch. With the physical games, it takes up barely any space, if at all... Some of the games may use space for save data. But thats barely takes up any...
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

i have no problem with digital, i'm not one of those idiots who misses out on games because they don't have a physical release

Idiots? Yes buying things that can be taken from you at any point rather than a physical release that you can play whenever for the most part is what smart folk do. I've no issue with folk preferring digital or physical but let's not pretend those why only buy physical are idiots.
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they aren't going to come to my house and make me delete a game from my external/internal drive.

and there are lots of people who say things like "i would love to play (insert game here) but it doesn't have a physical release"
how is it not idiotic to skip something you would enjoy because of that?
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

they aren't going to come to my house and make me delete a game from my external/internal drive

No but once that dies or is removed it's gone forever. If a disc breaks? I buy a new one. No matter what you like to tell yourself physical will always be better. Nothing wrong with having a preference that suits you though.

Krazy_Kirby posted...

and there are lots of people who say things like "i would love to play (insert game here) but it doesn't have a physical release"
how is it not idiotic to skip something you would enjoy because of that?

.. because the reason I just said. Also I like to hold things I buy on my hands. It feels I've bought something that way. I also don't want to download games.
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digital can last longer, and takes up less phyiscal space.
physical won't always be better.
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I mean, with digital releases, you're basically owning a license to rent a game.
I'm sure if gaming gets a bit further in the digital trend, people will remember the pros to physical media and return to it like people are with vinyls.
I have a rental store real close to me. It's great for random classics, though most are downloads that burned to a labeled disc.

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I suspect most of the industry is fairly neutral about rental stores. The renters themselves still buy games after all, and for any company that has DLC it can mean that more people might get at least some of the DLC while they have it rented.

Players who like a game they rent may also buy a game they otherwise wouldn't have. Which either would be from the renter (i.e. Gamefly's keep, and if new potentially encouraging the renter to get more copies), or digitally (in which case its a new copy being bought by the player).

Its mostly the physical rental store (as in, the store itself being a physical place) that is really dying out though. GameFly seems to be doing fairly well.
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Rental stores may be dying out, but they have to contend with online rental services and Redbox-like machines. Their challenges changed rather than simply went away.

I_Abibde posted...

The video game industry is looking to an all-digital future. If you don't have to make anything physical and only have to sell data, that's a lot more profit in the company pocket.

It would love an all-digital future, but I'm not sure that's ever going to be a reality. We still see PC games that aren't exclusively being sold digitally.

I_Abibde posted...

I didn't think there were really any rental stores left, honestly. When Blockbuster went, that was pretty much the end of that. And the industry would really like to finish killing off Game Stop, at this point.

The only mainstream physical presence atm is probably Redbox and similar services which carry a smaller, but popular assortment of current titles in addition to movies. Honestly, it's a nifty system.

As for Gamestop, I think their problem has always been more a matter of oversaturation. I've been to areas where there'll be one Gamestop at the mall and then another down the street from the mall... and several more in town. In general, used games is a great market due to the margins involved.

darcandkharg31 posted...

I_Abibde posted...

If you don't have to make anything physical and only have to sell data

That's weird to think about, we're in the age where we are paying not paying for anything physical, just signals.

It's worse than that, because we're also paying for the media storage.

wwinterj25 posted...

No however folk do still buy pre owned and in sales. Also rental stores can be a good way to advertise your game as if someone tries it and likes it they might buy it where as without renting they might not even give the game a second thought. Even more so with "live service" games.

Nowadays they have digital demos.
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

digital can last longer, and takes up less phyiscal space.
physical won't always be better.

Physical may be around longer than digital. They can always take game away digitally. Like closing down the server where you download it from or whatever. Even if you physical game breaks, you can buy another. And normally, you can buy them much later on from someone online. Both can last long. Which last longer will changed based on the game...
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Nowadays it's a moot point since more than half of game sales are Digital...but I think stores like GameStop were much more a thorn in the side of Video game Developers/Publishers than Video stores ever were. IMHO
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If by thorn, you mean potentially reducing sales, then yeah, buying used copies of games would definitely be more a thorn to them than would stores renting a game.
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