With Steam et. al. in place with all kinds of DRM....

[Golgatha]

Why don't we have PC game rentals now?

Discuss.

I for one would like to be able to rent the Call of Duty series for the single player campaigns. This should be possible. Console games are rentable and the DRM included with Steam et. al. is good enough to make rentals possible. You know, DRM for the betterment of the consumer and all that jazz they say on Capitol Hill.

 

[Texashiker]

I can see rentals coming to steam in the near future.

Have you seen those new free to play games on steam? Where the developers make money from customers buying weapons, instead of buying the game.

There are some threads on the steam forum that Valve is working on a free to play game. The details have not been released yet.

With free to play games, are rentals even needed?

 

[n7]

Onlive...

 

[Lonyo]

Can you rent console games digitally? Xbox 360 and PS3 both come with harddrives.

 

[Maleficus]

I'm more curious as to when I'll be able to sell my games back, Steam was supposed to be working on that.

 

[Anteaus]

Why would they dare let us rent games digitally? No one would ever buy them again. It would be financial suicide. As it is, console game develops don't like their games being rented either.

 

[Texashiker]

Why would they dare let us rent games digitally?

Renting goes along with the "software as a service" mindset that some companies have.

No one would ever buy them again.

Saying that renting would put an end to buying, is like saying netflicks is going to kill the dvd market. There are still people out there that buy movies.

Why should I buy a dvd when I can rent it on netflicks? Because I want access to the movie anytime I want, and its convenient.

 

[KaOTiK]

Direct 2 Drive has some games for rent currently.

 

[smackababy]

Renting goes along with the "software as a service" mindset that some companies have.




Saying that renting would put an end to buying, is like saying netflicks is going to kill the dvd market. There are still people out there that buy movies.

Why should I buy a dvd when I can rent it on netflicks? Because I want access to the movie anytime I want, and its convenient.

However, in the age where most games cost $50 and are trash, why would I want to buy a game when I can play it for a reduced cost? Single player games would no longer need to be purchased. $7.99 and I get the Witcher 2 for a couple days? Game finished... Multiplayer games are the only place this model wouldn't kill sales. That would force companies who make single player games to switch to multiplayer ones and fuck that noise.

 

[wuliheron]

We do already have rentals as some have already stated. Games are no different then videos in that respect and it just costs more to rent or buy depending on how old the game is because they make the bulk of their money in the first few months.

 

[Texashiker]

However, in the age where most games cost $50 and are trash, why would I want to buy a game when I can play it for a reduced cost?

I have been playing the left 4 dead series since January 2009. If I had been renting the games (l4d and l4d2), for say $10 a month for 18 months, I would have spent about $180, instead of the $80 for the 2 games. A few months ago both games were in a package for something like $12.

For the casual gamer that likes to play lots of games, renting might be a better option then buying.

But for people like myself that will put hundreds, if not thousands of hours into a game, its better to buy. I played Team Fortress Classic for close to 10 years. Diablo II, I probably played that game on and off for about 6 years. I just bought fallout new vegas for less then $12 at direct2drive, and I look to be playing new vegas for a long time.