Redbox Now Offering Video Games

Prior to their declaration of bankruptcy, Blockbuster attempted to stave off the then impending financial crisis they were facing by adding video games to their rent-by-mail service.

Well, according to FastCompany, it looks like Redbox is set to follow suit.

The outlet is reporting that Redbox announced that they will be offering video games along with DVDs in their rental kiosks.   Game rentals will cost you $2 a night, as opposed to the $1 price tag that DVD rentals hold for the company.

Now, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as back in 2009, the company hired a VP of video games, Mark Achler, to look into and test a system that would bring video games to the Coinstar subsidiary’s kiosks.

However, this leads to a few questions.   First, will the public jive with this price point? I know that personally, I play a rented video game for far longer than one night, and with a five night rental at my local brick and mortar shop only costing right around $7, it’s far from economical.   Also, with rent-by-mail games services taking off, a kiosk based game rental service doesn’t seem all that viable.

Second, and most interesting, is where does this leave Netflix? While I don’t see any sort of video game renting coming to the big red giant, I don’t think it’s out of the question, particularly if this service begins to really take off.   That said, the prices would have to amp up quite a bit, which doesn’t appear to be Netflix’s game at this point in time.

What do you think?

Source: FastCompany