Support NeoGAF

[mightynine]

None of the national chains ever offered Game Boy games up for rent, at least in my area. I vaguely remember seeing GB games for rent once when I was very young at a mom and pop place down in the bayou, but that's it.

After renting some stuff tonight, it got me to thinking why renting GB games never caught on. Was it the fact that they were so small, therefore they would be easy to lose, and therefore not worth the effort?

You would think though, with the huge popularity of the GBA nowadays, the games would be offered for rental.

Anyone know if there are any concrete reasons as to why this is? And for that matter, do you think PSP games will be available for rent? And PSP movies, and so on?

 

[belgurdo]

Probably because they're easier to lose track of ("Oh teh noes, I left that copy of Iridion back at the campsite in Maine!")

 

[AniHawk]

Maybe they got too easy to pirate? I dunno. I used to see tons of GBA games available to rental in 2001 and 2002.

 

[Kon Tiki]

My local Blockbuster has them up until this year. I would guess lack of revenue.

 

[mightynine]

Probably because they're easier to lose track of ("Oh teh noes, I left that copy of Iridion back at the campsite in Maine!")

Well, hell, you were lucky if that copy of (insert NES or SNES game here) had the manual.

Maybe it was just a regional thing, because I've never seen GBA games for rent at Blockbuster, or Video USA, or even good ol' Major Video.

So will the PSP's games be on the shelf? Do you expect them to be?

 

[teiresias]

I remember being able to rent Gameboy and even GameGear games at one time, but not anytime recently.

 

[TheUnknownForce]

My BB has GBA games for rent. When I rented Wario Land 4, though, it turned out to be Wario Ware. While it was still cool, it ticked me off knowing someone just replaced it, and I couldn't play the beloved game I wanted to. I can only imagine DS rentals. Those things are so small. Even if N-Gage was good, they probably wouldn't rent the games out just because of their sized games.

 

[puck1337]

My local Blockbuster has them up until this year. I would guess lack of revenue.

Same with mine. Too bad, because I loved renting GBA games.

 

[Ranger X]

I think the userbase of the SP may be still young enough to give a hard time to places like Blockbuster business wise.
I doubt the piracy have something to do with this all. By the way here in Ontario and Quebec we have the "Roger's Video" that does still rent GBA games.

 

[jarrod]

I know plenty of people turn to emulation to try out GBA titles (I usually do before I buy too). Banned!

 

[bobbyconover]

I know plenty of people turn to emulation to try out GBA titles (I usually do before I buy too). Banned!

You might as well. The game companies get just as much money as they would if you rented them, and I've actually been influenced to buy games that I never would've touched (or rented) otherwise.

 

[Laurent]

My local Blockbuster (in Quebec) still rent Game Boy Advance games. I always thought that, since the cadridges are so small and light, the risk to loose track of it was too high... Maybe PSP discs, since they are somewhat the same size of GameCube discs, will be a more attractive media to rent?