When I go into the video game section of Blockbuster and I see the PSP section without a single game being rented but there’s no DS section. I know there was a lot of hype surrounding the PSP and Blockbuster was probably caught up in it but It’s frustrating that they’ve completely ignored the DS rental market. There are a handful of games I’d love to try but I can’t justify purchasing all of them. Blockbuster is missing out on some serious business.
Maybe I’ll have to give Gamefly a try, afterall.
BB doesn’t carry catridges. I believe it has something to do with the fact that you save your game progress to them. To properly rent them, they’d need to be able to delete the saved data and that would require having a DS in every store and they certainly don’t want to trust that their employees wouldn’t sit around and play DS all day… not to mention the payroll it would eat up.
Corvus, is that a recent policy, or are you taking a guess?
I ask because back in the day BB rented cartridge-based games all the time, and they’d leave the data on there. On a semi-related note, EB and GS sells used catridge-based games with the files still on there. If they don’t care about it, why would BB?
Tony, that grinds my gears as well. That is one of the many reasons why I will not give BB any more of my money.
I think it has more to do with the size of the cartridge than anything else. Not that that explains the decision to carry PSP games, but Blockbuster never carried any of the Game Boy games either.
For those interested in renting games for the DS, (or other popular systems) try using a game rental service like Gamefly or gamelender which offer NetFlix style rentals. They also allow for purchase of games you like at used prices.
After a cursory look around, Intelliflix seems to be a great deal. For $14 US per month you can get have up to 3 games/movies at a time, with unlimited rentals. So you don’t have any games you want to play right now? Get a chick flick and suprize the buttonwife. They also offer a pay per play rental deal too at about 5 bucks per shot.
Gamefly is the way to go fo DS games.
I’d recommend it.
Will, call it an informed guess. It’s consistant with many of their other policies.
Whenever I buy a used game on a cartridge the first thing I do is erase the saved games. I’d do the same thing with a rented cartidge. Oh well.
Silvanis – my BB carries GBA games for sale, but they don’t have DS games. Even if they weren’t for rent, selling them would be a start.
Bryan and ag – I’ll check out Gamefly and Intelliflix. I’d have to cancel EVE, though, because I can’t have two expenses like that. Hmmm, something to consider.
ag – what’s the turn-around on DS games? Is it reasonable?
The DS turnaround is pretty good. I think it’s one of those hidden perks of Gamefly. Most people don’t think to get DS games from an online rental service.
ToT I have sold my psp to blockbuster, and now it seems that they dont have the ds lite in stock…This really sucks considering i cant take the credit out for money…And they promised me that they would get the ds lite in stock…Todays the 11th, and they have not had one ds lite come through, I hate blockbuster, they suck. Why would they tell me something, then say the lite hasnt come in! well i guess i cant do anything, but let my money rott with blockbuster 🙁
Nathan – sounds like you got the screw-job from Blockbuster, bro. Sorry to hear that. I hope they eventually get in some DS Lites so you can pick one up.