Gamefly vs. Blockbuster vs. Redbox vs. Gamestop?

As I'm sure many of us are well aware gaming is not cheap. With games costing $60 no one wants to waste their hard earned cash on a terrible game. There are some cheaper alternatives to getting to play the games you want without having to pay full price. I'm going to talk about some services and the pros and cons of each one.

GAMEFLY
This is probably the biggest of the renting services around. With no late fees and over 7,000 titles it sounds like a great deal. For the most part it is. I've been a gamefly member for a little over a year and never once thought it wasn’t worth the money. I play 10x the amount of games that I did when I was buying games and have saved roughly 1/3 of what I spent per year before it. The only real reason I can boast this is because I don't care what I play. I just enjoy playing the games. However Gamefly does have its problems. With such a large fan base it's difficult to get any new release games. The games are down to VERY LOW QUANTITY (<25%)almost as soon as they appear on the site for rent and some times you will be waiting up to 5-6 months or longer before you can get one. Up till about 2 months ago COD:MW2 was still at LOW Quantity (25%). It also seems like sometimes they just decide to leave out older games. FF6 (gba) for example never moves above Medium (50%) quantity and almost always stays at VERY LOW quantity. If you don't really care what you play that Gamefly is definitely a good idea.

Pros: Lot's of games to choose from. No late fees. Free shipping, and up to 10% off all games.
Cons: Lots of people=Low quantity of new games. Abandonment of older games.

BLOCKBUSTER
Blockbuster started their online rental service not to long ago. They priced it cheaper than Gamefly and offer movies as well. However they only have 3000 titles where Gamefly has 7000. With Blockbuster being focused mostly on movies gaming seems like a second thought, and it shows. Almost ever game has Low Quantity, with some games like Mass Effect 2 for ps3 not even being shipped to Blockbusters online service until October. Another thing about this service is the 5 in store switches. You can take the game you’re renting into any Blockbuster store 5 times a month and switch it with any game there. The problem with this (and this may just be where I live) is that Blockbuster has a relatively small selection games in stores. So again it seems like this service is aimed at movies with games tacked on. The best thing about this service is that you can keep any game you like 25% off. That's awesome. However with Blockbuster going out of business it's not clear how long this service will continue, or if it will improve much.

Pros: Cheaper than Gamefly. 5 in store switches. 25% off.
Cons: Smaller Selection. Main focus on Movies. Blockbuster going out of business.

REDBOX
I don't even need to ask what you think of when you hear Redbox. While they are focused mostly on movies they started adding games to their Kiosks. The games cost $1 a day just like movies. Now many of you may think that this is a terrible idea. I did at first. But let's look at the pricing. A game costs $60 new. So for Redbox that would be something like 55 days (depending on sales tax, {I'm using California Sales tax}) you could keep the game. Now let's look at it like this. Say you go and buy a game that is decent. It has an ok single player and an ok multiplayer but doesn't have many people online. (I'm using 007 Blood Stone for example) It took me roughly 8 hours to beat Blood Stone and I spent maybe 2 hours online. That's 10 hours. That in now way justifies a $60 price tag. Instead of buying the game new for $60 I played the game and it only cost me $1. Not bad right? Again the biggest problem is that they are focused on movies and have maybe 1-3 games per kiosk.

Pros: Potential to be cheap.
Cons: Potential to get pricy. Low amount of games.

GAMESTOP
I know since the rest of these have been about renting you might be wondering what GameStop is doing in this list. I'm going to throw out an idea not many people have thought about, and that is using GameStop as a rental service. GameStop "sells" used games with a 7 day return policy. 6 days if you don't count the day you bought it. If you buy a game from them and play it you can than return it (with the receipt) within 6 days for a full refund. Here's the idea. You "buy" a used game. Play it and on the 6th day, or when you’re finished (whichever comes first) you return it and get another game. If you do it right you will only ever have to pay $60 and will be able to play any game you want. The ability to go in store and pick out a specific game without having to wait for it to be mailed to you is one of the best things about this method. The problems though are that you have to wait for someone to trade the game in used, as you can't return new games. Another problem is that if you pass that 6 day mark without returning the game you just bought it and can only trade it in. There's a lot of room for success and easy savings here, but there's a lot of room for error to, especially with how fickle GameStop employees seem to be on company policy. Exercise caution.

Pros: Possibility to only have to pay $60 once, forever. In store selection=no waiting on mail.
Cons: High possibility for error. GameStop changing policy without notice.

With games not cheap we all need ways to play more and save more. With EA's online pass thing in progress these strategies become harder to use. But hopefully they save you some money. Post a comment letting me know which way of renting games you prefer, or do you just straight up buy games? Also let me know if there are anymore renting services which might help save money.

LEX-1020