GameStop Is Launching An Unlimited Used Game Rental Subscription, Says Report (polygon.com)

According to a leaked advertisement, GameStop is rolling out a used game rental subscription service. Subscribers will be able to pick any used game, play it, return it and get another as often as they like. The service will reportedly cost $60 for six months, and players get to keep the last game they borrow. Polygon reports: The advertisement was first seen at ResetEra, the new gaming forum. It appears to be from the newest issue of Game Informer (which is published by GameStop). The "Power Pass" subscription lasts six months and costs $60, according to the advertisement. Sign ups will begin on Nov. 19. The fine print says the Power Pass must be activated by Jan. 31, 2018, possibly hinting at when this service will go live. The subscription requires that the user be a PowerUp Rewards member, and the offer will be available only to the used game catalog in a store (i.e. physical discs), not from GameStop's online library. The PowerUp Rewards requirement apparently is there to help GameStop track the game currently in a user's possession.

Comments

ResetEra

[jimmifett]

Don't forget, ResetEra is the new echo chamber that was NeoGAF, famous for banning any dissenting opinions or wrong-think. Created by it's users when NeoGAF's owner was outed for sexual harassment, the ban-happy mods quit or ate their own, and the forum shut down.

Re:ResetEra

[sexconker]

Don't forget, ResetEra is the new echo chamber that was NeoGAF, famous for banning any dissenting opinions or wrong-think. Created by it's users when NeoGAF's owner was outed for sexual harassment, the ban-happy mods quit or ate their own, and the forum shut down.

I would like more details!

Did they OK this with publishers?

[rsilvergun]

Last I heard you can't just buy off the shelf and rent out. I know you can't do that with video cassettes. Maybe they'll turn a blind eye in the hopes of getting DLC sales? But if you have to pay $60/yr + $15-$20 bucks to play online then I can't see this flying.

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gamestop could structure this as a $60 used game sale with $50 pre-approved buy-back in 1 month, followed by a $50 used game sale with a $40 pre-approved buyback in 2 months, etc.

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[sanf780]

Of course they did not ask publishers. But it is not only Gamestop being greedy these days, it is the publishers deal too. They did not give enough slack to gamestop (revenue per new unit on the shelf is low), so Gamestop ended up reinventing itself as a large second hand retail store chain. A new game at $60 ends up being rebought at $25 and resold at $55 ("sold" probably meaning licensed and "resold" meaning probably unlawfully licensed). And in order to make sure you do not leave the food chain, you get a bonus in store-only credit. The publishers came back with the idea of one-off DLCs, like EA's Online Pass. That is folks, even if you paid Sony or Microsoft for online play, if you bought a second hand disc, you had to spend another $10 for online play for a single game.

The publisher way of doing things nowadays is microtransactions (includes loot boxes) and season passes that cannot be transferred. Heck, loot boxes sometimes contain consumable items so that you require constant use of your credit card in order to be competitive. Even games like FIFA 2018 contain consumable items when you pay for the premium delivery. Publishers might not care of lost sales due to Gamestop second hand market (that is in no way piracy and can be accounted for as lost sale as people are willing to pay 90% of retail price for a second hand game where a pirate probably will not pay anything even if able), publishers just care of continued revenue going their way. 2017 is becoming the year of microtransactions and loot boxes. Let's celebrate!

By the way, it is 40 to 60$/yr for online play for Sony and Microsoft.

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[sexconker]

The first sale doctrine has it covered.
There's an explicit exemption for music (only) recordings, and an exemption for computer programs. But computer programs that are part of a physical product that can't be copied during normal use are exempted from the exemption, and so are non-pc video games.

As far as I know, you can buy and rent out VHS tapes, and you always could. I remember hullabaloo about it in the 90s, but as far as I know it was just Hollywood kicking and screaming. They also spread FUD about retail "home video" copies not being suited to rentals because they would wear out faster. The only thing I actually noticed was that new releases on VHS got stupidly expensive for a few years, and if you had the balls to not return a rental from Blockbuster the fee for "buying" that copy would be enormous, allegedly pegged to their cost for the "okay to rent out" copy. (Yet if you wanted to outright buy last year's blockbuster from them, it was a normal price.)

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[drinkypoo]

Last I heard you can't just buy off the shelf and rent out.

Where did you hear that?

I know you can't do that with video cassettes.

You heard wrong. You absolutely can do that with video cassettes or anything else. Many of the video cassettes I have rented over the years were absolutely ordinary retail tapes, because I've rented many tapes from neighborhood video stores.

What the law actually says is that you can't make a copy and distribute it, nor can you make a backup copy and distribute the original. You are allowed to make backup copies in some circumstances, but you must either destroy them or transfer possession of them together with the original.

Your confusion probably stems from two facts: one, not bothering to verify things you've heard; and two, the fact that all major video rental outfits sign contracts and make deals regarding what tapes they will put on their shelf in exchange for early access to new releases. Back when we had video stores, they would get the tapes before they went on sale to the public. Now we instead have video streaming services which sign deals for streaming exclusivity, and to get permission to stream the video before it goes to disc.

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[drinkypoo]

All I know is that my local video store back in the 80's told me they HAD to buy special for Rent copies of their movies and that those copies cost WAY more than ones we could buy in a store.

A video store told you? Did it flap its door, and words came out? I'm guessing you talked to some employee who had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Even if you talked to the owner, though, they had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Once you own something, you can rent it out, and the law never stated otherwise. Some of the studies tried to assert otherwise, but they were unsuccessful and they were not suing video store owners. As for video games, Nintendo (of course, they are usually the bad guys in video gaming) tried to prevent their rental but that was laid to rest in 1990. So this is really a completely settled question.

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[suutar]

does that still apply once the game is used? I'd think first sale doctrine would mean that once it's been sold as new, what happens after that is not for the publisher to decide.

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[suutar]

I see someone else already made my point. I should read more before commenting :)

Re:Did they OK this with publishers?

[jandrese]

Video stores had the option to buy cassettes for movies before they were available for general retail, but they paid a premium for it. These cassettes would be marked as "for rental". I can see how a video store drone could be confused that they had to buy "special" tapes for everything in the store when they saw those. If a video store were willing to wait (and look so much less cool than the one down the street) they could just pick the tapes up at retail prices.

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

GOG will sell you games outright, DRM free, no spyware, no post-sale disabling possible, which are yours forever with no phoning home or other shinanigans, and if you buy on sale they have unbelievably good prices.

As a bonus, if you make stores like that "THE place to get games", as in that's where the buyers all went, then companies will have to follow and deliver DRM free product.

Or, you can just bend over and take it from the likes of Steaming Origin etc etc and teach companies that you are OK with the ability of post-sale clawback.

Re: In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Gog = PC games
This service = console games

Obviously they are targeting a different market with a different eco system. But yeah gog is awesome along with humble bundle in my opinion.

Re: In other news...

[sanf780]

That is because these days, a game like Destiny 2 for PC comes with an activation code in the form of a cardboard optical disc. Once used, you cannot give away the game to a third party. It is odd that a game that is online only like Destiny 2 did come in a disc for console and with an activation code for PC. After all, consoles are like underpowered but cheaper PCs these days. Games require patches from almost the first day the game goes live.

Several games have a single use code

[rsilvergun]

for online play. It's how they make money off used game sales.

Re:Several games have a single use code

[sanf780]

Let me inform you that online passes are not used anymore. According to Wikipedia, 2013 is the year it was last used by few major publishers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Publishers had a change of heart and went for season passes and online only games mixed with a lot of pre-order bonuses.

I had to look up the online passes thing, as I have not paid for what people call AAA game for a while. I remember the Cerberus Network for Mass Effect 2, a not worthy feature if you ask me. By the time I played that game, all patches were out. And the game was cheaper to boot.

GameFly Is Worried

[mentil]

I've subscribed to GameFly a few times, I bet they're crapping their pants about now. Let's see, I can pay $16/mo. to rent one game at a time via GameFly, or what works out to $10/mo. through Power Pass. With the former, I have to wait for the post office to deliver the game, and it's usually a surprise which of the games in my queue I end up getting; with the latter, I walk into any GameStop, find out what they have right now, and get it immediately. If I don't like the selection at one GameStop I can drive a few minutes away for a different selection. Ok, someone who doesn't have a car, or lives in a rural area that only has one GameStop nearby, may prefer the convenience of mail delivery. If there's only a couple games you'd care to rent, then that 6 months would be mostly wasted. I have a feeling that the vast majority of the most profitable customers will switch to Power Pass, I know I'm tempted.

I don't like wasting a large portion of each month (when I'm paying by the month) waiting for the mail to deliver my next game; GameFly cross-ships, but I still end up waiting 3-4 business days (in suburban Chicago; YMMV) They really ought to credit your account for days you spend waiting for shipping (they track this already.) Having two games out at a time lessens the impact of this, although that costs $23/mo. About 1/4 of the time, the disc is scratched and can't be installed/played through; wasting yet more time waiting for a replacement (worse if I'm partway through the game) adds insult to injury, and having two games out doesn't help with this. Popular games are most likely to be scratched, and are least available, so the chances you'll get a good copy are unusually bad. Being able to immediately go to a GameStop and exchange for another copy/different game would be game-changing (no pun intended.) Oh and then at the end of the 6 months, I can keep any used game I want (presumably, that they have on hand.)

I've also rented games from RedBox, but paying by the day (and the small selection) is unlikely to compete with a 6 month subscription to a much wider range of games. Staying up until 8am to beat a game because I refuse to pay for one additional day of rental (and then rushing to drop it off before work) is something I'd rather not repeat. That said, it's useful for trialing games you're unsure you'd like. Casual gamer whose friends are raving about Dark Souls 3? Rent it for a day. Renting an RPG from RedBox long enough to play through it would be insane, though.

I imagine so many GameStop customers will make use of this Power Pass that it'll be self-defeating: people will be less likely to purchase games and subsequently resell them to GameStop, leading to reduced availability of used copies, making the Power Pass less useful. One benefit of GameFly is they always buy some new copies, so you have a chance of getting a new highly-anticipated game; whereas with Power Pass you have to wait until some people resell the title (and if it's a long, excellent title like Breath of the Wild, that may be quite the wait... although in that case you should maybe just buy it new.)

Re:GameFly Is Worried

[drinkypoo]

If a game costs sixty bucks new anyway, you have literally nothing to lose by getting it via power pass. This could actually get me to go into a gamestop again... if I still had a game console :)

Re:GameFly Is Worried

[jandrese]

It really depends on what the catalog is like for the service. GameFly presumably has a good selection of recent and old releases, while this service could very well end up being mostly Madden 2013 and other similar bargain bin dust collectors. Being able to pick up a game in store doesn't really help when the store never has any game you would want to play.

Please don't start your sentence in the subject

[MBGMorden]

and finish in the body. It's confusing.