200 Game Crazy stores to close

Game Crazy, a store that rents, sells and trades video games, will close roughly 200 locations by the end of the month.

The chain, which is owned by Movie Gallery, is a store within a store, operating inside select Hollywood Video locations. Video Business reports that the Hollywood Video locations themselves will not be closing.

Some nitty-gritty details for Game Crazy patrons, courtesy of Joystiq: Pre-orders for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be “reactivated” at surviving stores. I believe that means you’ll have to pre-order again at another Game Crazy or Hollywood Video location. Other game pre-orders can be made at Hollywood Video if the game is paid in full beforehand. Trade credits and pre-order deposits can be redeemed at closing locations for a Hollywood Video and Game Crazy gift certificate. Joystiq also has an unconfirmed partial list of the closing locations.

Because I don’t have a Game Crazy near me — or at least have never been inclined to seek one out — I’m more interested in the question of whether in-store video game rentals are on their death bed. With Blockbuster also closing up to 1,000 stores, it’s certainly a possibility.

Even before I joined GameFly a couple years ago, I tended to avoid in-store game rentals. Poor selection at Blockbuster aside, the very nature of video games, which can take anywhere from 10 to 40 hours to complete, makes it hard to finish a game in the rental time allotted.

You could argue that a rental store lets you try a game before buying, but even that’s a troubled business. GameFly makes it very easy for customers to keep the games they rent, selling used games at competitive prices and sending the box and manual upon purchase. The company has also been launching rental kiosks at 7-Eleven locations, allowing people to test drive a game for $2 per night.

With other options available to customers besides in-store rentals, the decline of Game Crazy almost mimics that of Blockbuster. The only difference is a lack of digital distribution for video game rentals. And as more game publishers experiment on the digital front, it’s only a matter of time before in-store rentals have very little to offer.