I hate to repeat myself but here’s the breakdown again.
Case and point: suppose you’re on the 2 games at a time plan with Gamefly. That’s $22.95 a month or $275 for the year. Now this is the plan I’m on and I rent a good 40 to 50 games over the year. I don’t always play through that many but that’s about right for the number of games that come through the house in a year’s time. Retail cost for 40 games = $2400 if you assume a $60 price tag. Used games at say $25 a pop if you’re lucky would come to $1000. Go ahead and cut that in half if you think it’s still too high. You’re still coming out at $500, nearly twice what you’d pay for Gamefly for the entire year to play that many games.
It’s not whether or not I should rent before I buy, it’s whether I rent from Gamefly, which as I said, sucks. I can still go to my local video store to rent games, and while they are just as maddening as far as game availability, the price is about the same, and in fact, probably less.
Well I can’t speak to whatever Mom & Pop video store you might use. That’s always a crapshoot but if you’re anywhere even remotely resembling an urban area you can forget about Blockbuster or Hollywood or any of the big name brick and mortar outfits. Availability is a joke and on the rare occasion you might actually be able to grab something of interest it’s usually so beat to hell it’s unplayable. At least that’s my experience here in New York. I’m honestly surprised they’re still in business around here.
I don’t know anything about Hollywood Video but Blockbuster has recently reinstated late fees. I believe their referring to them these days as “restocking fees” or some other such nonsense but the end result is the same. At least with GF what you see is what you get.
Not just distribution centers, but also games. It seems that the more important complaint I’m seeing is that there are just not enough games to go around and satisfy peoples’ queues.
I’ve thought about doing GameFly, but my time to play games is so sporadic that I find that I end up starting a game from the beginning just so I can relearn the controls for some overly complex games. (Side note, I hate that more and more games need so many combos to learn.)
For you, the numbers work out. I’m a pretty hardcore gamer and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that buys an average of 40 games in a year. When would you ever have time to play all of them?
Yeah, I hate to say it, but -no- -one- is considering Gamefly as an alternative to “I’ll just buy 40 games a year!” To imply that people would be buying all the games they are renting is just a specious argument.
Ask my girlfriend’s brother. You have a lot of time to play video games when you’re 26, living with your parents, working part time, and you literally buy almost every Xbox 360 game that comes out.
Well, like I said in my original post, I’m not actually playing that many games a year but that’s how many actually pass through my home in that amount of time. There are plenty of games that come through, get played for an hour and sent right back which ends up paying for the service right there a few times over.
The math still comes out in your favor even if you were to get the minimum number of games on your plan each month for a year. On the 2 games at a time plan even if cycled through only 2 a month (24 total for the year) I’m still coming out almost $1200 ahead of what I would be if I paid retail. Even if I cut that number in half to assume I’m buying used it’s still a savings of $450. That’s why I’m saying the math doesn’t lie. I’m not making this up. I just picked up the calculator and plugged it in. It works out no matter which plan or number of games you plug in.
The point is variety and opportunity that paying retail doesn’t provide.
I would agree … if I were to find either variety or opportunity from Gamefly.
Variety? Sure, unless you mean new games. I could have had two copies of MotorStorm out anytime I want, but *Call of Juarez *… apparently they only have one copy of it and Bob in Denver has it right now.
Opportunity? Sure, I have the opportunity to wait two weeks to get a game that is third in my queue, and then the opportunity to guess how long (and how many #3’s I’m going to get) until I actually get the game I want to play.
On the other hand, I walk into my local store and if they don’t have the game I want to rent … no money spent. If they do … $7 (thereabouts). If I do that twice a month, same money spent as I would have spent at Gamefly, but **Lepracorn’s **office over at the Gamefly building doesn’t get a new coffee maker this month.
Oh, I did not know that about Netflix. It really pays to get on the bandwagon late at times.
This thread is not too promising for Gamefly, though, and I have been half-heartedly considering getting it. I don’t buy more than…4 games a year, and that’s probably way too high. I don’t buy anywhere near that amount of new games. But renting would be perfect.
Like the OP, Hollywood video never has anything and the good games are always checked out.
Yeah, this is really the crux of my problem with Gamefly. If I wanted to play Final Fantasy 10 for the PS2, I’m sure I’d have no problems getting it. But I don’t. The 4 top games in my queue right now are Ghosbusters, Infamous, Prototype and Call of Juarez. (I guess both of us are waiting for Bob to get done with that game…) If you want to play any of those you’re SOL because they’re all marked as “Low” availability right now. Which according to Gamefly means, “there is a less than 25% chance of this game shipping today.”
I don’t want to just play whatever they might have available, I want to play games that interest me. I never have more than 8-10 games in my queue at any time and I’m not going to flood the damn thing with games that I don’t want so they can just send me two random games to fulfill their contractual obligations.
Oh and I just bought a copy of Ghostbusters after playing the demo so I’m going to be removing that from my list shortly. There was a very good chance I would have went the “keep it” route with that particular title so they just lost a $40 sell through because they didn’t have enough copies.
I know they’re getting my money anyway, but there it is.
How is that paying for the service right there? Assuming a three-day turnaround like you’re claiming, and a two-at-a-time plan for $275 a year, you’re effectively paying $1.13 for that game you don’t play. By contrast, on the zero-at-a-time plan that I’m on, I pay $0.00 for a game I don’t play. When you’re paying more than I am, for the same benefit, your plan isn’t “paying for itself”.
I do. I’m probably close to 100 games a year. The trick is be a collector who samples a hell of a lot of stuff looking for the odd gems in crowd (my pile of games was a good one since both Samurai Western and The Red Star were pretty good).
Of course the average price I pay is still lower than a Gamefly subscription since what I’m paying on average is just a hair more than $10.
Jesus, can we get off the Gamefly shill nonsense already and just have an honest debate. Excuse me for supporting a business I believe in. I could just as easily accuse you of working for Blockbuster in some counter attempt to bring down Gamefly. Sound stupid? Yeah, I think so too.
There’s a pretty significant difference between a $1.13 investment and a $60 one. I’m much happier realizing I’m not particularly fond of a game and only being a dollar poorer vs. $60 for it.