Redbox will offer $2 per day videogame rentals nationwide in June

[zerocool84]

Kiosk movie rental giant Redbox is finally officially expanding into the games category, announcing today it will offer videogames nationwide starting June 17th. The $2/day game rentals will include selections for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii (two of which even have a working online service right now). This may be old hat to some since it's been in testing at about 5,000 locations since around the same time it kicked off nationwide Blu-ray rentals, but for 21,000+ other locations there's now a whole new reason to stand behind someone that wants to check each and every title available when all you want to do is return a disc. Seriously, express return slots Redbox -- get on it.

They already rent games at one of they local ones near me. They're usually kid games and no PS3 games. I wonder if they allow M rated games on them.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/redbox-will-offer-2-per-day-videogame-rentals-nationwide-in-jun/

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Well, considering games these days are about 4 hours long, why not.

 

[trmiv]

The one near me has had game rentals for awhile. I haven't really been that impressed with the selection. They do have 360, PS3 and Wii games, but it's only been like 4 or 5 titles at a time. Hopefully they beef up the selection a little and carry more of the hot titles.

 

[gorcorps]

The one near me has had game rentals for awhile. I haven't really been that impressed with the selection. They do have 360, PS3 and Wii games, but it's only been like 4 or 5 titles at a time. Hopefully they beef up the selection a little and carry more of the hot titles.

There's only so much room in those machines... I think your expectations are a little high :\

 

[trmiv]

There's only so much room in those machines... I think your expectations are a little high :\

If they are going to do it, get rid of some of the other crap in the machines, and put in more games. Some of the ones near me still have crap like "Madea Goes to Jail," "Deep Impact," "Face Off" etc. But it seems they have like one copy each of Mortal Kombat and other new titles.

 

[dfuze]

There is one close to me but I never tried going there since I already had a Netflix account, but if they offer game rentals that cheap it's certainly worth trying out.

 

[AstroManLuca]

They're usually kid games and no PS3 games.

maybe that's because the PS3

Spoiler

has no games

jk I'm looking forward to this, Blockbuster sucks ass and it costs like $8 to rent a game from them, even a shitty old one that you can buy outright for $15. Gamefly ships too slowly to the midwest for me to even consider them.

 

[gorcorps]

If they are going to do it, get rid of some of the other crap in the machines, and put in more games. Some of the ones near me still have crap like "Madea Goes to Jail," "Deep Impact," "Face Off" etc. But it seems they have like one copy each of Mortal Kombat and other new titles.

I agree, but the machines collect rental statistics of movies which they collect at times to decide which movies to keep and swap to. Unfortunately that means people are actually watching these Madea movies D:

It'd be great if it took off and they started putting game-only kiosks around. They wouldn't be as prevalent as the movie ones, but it'd still be nice to have.

 

[neit]

Just got an email that they're live with this in missouri. Using the search the games are a bit scattered around, but this will be excellent for short single player games (ie, weekend bender of portal 2 if/when they get it specifically) or for a casual gaming night to try out a new kinect game (again if/when they get those).

Similar complaints about selections, but I feel like eventually they'll have a good selection even if it's not all in one single redbox, there are 10-15 of them in a 3 mile radius.

 

[Kev]

The cool thing about redbox is you can use their iphone app to check availability and reserve a copy for pickup later. Beats going to blockbuster to find that every decent game they have is out of stock.

 

[tmc]

they should make it $1 per day

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

There was a sign on the machine at my local grocery store that said game rentals were now available, but there was a line so I didn't check to see what the title selection was like.

 

[Queasy]

The cool thing about redbox is you can use their iphone app to check availability and reserve a copy for pickup later. Beats going to blockbuster to find that every decent game they have is out of stock.

You can do the same thing from their website. Even then though the selection is kind of meh. For example, all the Redbox's near me are adding three different versions of Cars 2 this week but not Shadows of the Damned.

 

[BoberFett]

Their Android app doesn't seem to list games yet but their website does show availability/location.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Their Android app doesn't seem to list games yet but their website does show availability/location.

Comments on the Android app seem to indicate that they don't have games listed in the app yet. Hope they actually do that. Their website is unusable on a phone and there's no mobile version; they intend for you to use the app.

 

[BoberFett]

The site works from my phone. When first visiting the site (Opera Mini on Android) it forwards to a mobile specific page linking to the app, but there's also a link to the standard Redbox site, and it let's me browse on my phone just fine. Seems Duke Nukem Forever is available at the one down the street. Not sure if it's worth $2 though.

 

[AstroManLuca]

It works on my phone but not very well. I like it when websites offer a mobile optimized version, although I suppose that would probably be missing features as well.

 

[Rage187]

the ones around me have had games for awhile. Not enough though. They had Brink and LA Noire and only a couple copies of each.

 

[gorcorps]

I have to remember to check this out. Not that I need more games to play, but rentals would be fine for me a lot of the time.

 

[Rage187]

One game I will try with redbox is Child of Eden. $2 for a 90 minute game? Perfect.

 

[uli2000]

The redboxes near me have had games for awhile as well. Although they did have the lastest Assasins Creed at release for PS3, it seemed like the bulk of them were dancing games for the Wii. Plus, it was only $1.50/day for games instead of the $2 they want now.

 

[Crow550]

They should add a kiosk next to the Redboxs with just games. So one kiosk is filled with Movies and the other games. Maybe give the game kiosk it's own name?