Movie rental chain Blockbuster confirmed it will begin testing a new order-by-Internet video game rental business sometime in June for the Ohio video market, with nationwide testing of the service to roll out before 2010.
"This pilot allows us to test a variety of implementation details and gather invaluable key learnings and consumer insights before finalizing and launching a national online game rental offering," Blockbuster.com VP Bob Barr said in a statement published on the Blockbuster web site.
Brick and mortar retail locations already are known for renting video games, and an online game rental service will give the struggling company another market not saturated by Netflix. An analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities claims video game rentals are 10 to 15 percent of Blockbuster’s revenue rental per year, with games for the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Sony PlayStation 3 leading the way.
Blockbuster subscribers in the Cleveland, Ohio area who are Total Access or by-mail subscribers will be able to use online game rental for a monthly fee that will be charged only if they rent video games. Total Access subscribers will have the option of returning the rented video games in-store, the Blockbuster web site says.
As Netflix continues to eat away at Blockbuster, offering online video game rentals only makes sense in my mind. Every time I go to Blockbuster I always see a few people browsing the video game aisles, and targeting a market with only Gamefly — and no Netflix influence — can’t hurt.
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