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GameStop Is Launching An Unlimited Used Game Rental Subscription, Says Report (polygon.com) 38

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.
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GameStop Is Launching An Unlimited Used Game Rental Subscription, Says Report

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  • 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.

    • 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!

  • 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.
    • by 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.

    • 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
    • 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

    • 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 [entmerch.org]. 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 poss

    • by suutar ( 1860506 )

      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.

  • In other news... (Score:2, Informative)

    by 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 a

    • by 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.

  • 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 driv

    • 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 :)

    • by jandrese ( 485 )
      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.

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