Comments on: Comic: “Blockbuster Video Games by Mail”

By: the556lineman

the556lineman — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:22:05 +0000

What purpose does Blockbuster serve again? They blew it when they started to suck 20 years ago. I can’t for the life of me figure why anyone would chose them over Netflix or Redbox. Maybe someday these services will suck too, but they haven’t yet.

By: Prometheus

Prometheus — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:32:10 +0000

Blockbuster does not charge anything additional for a product held for an extended period via the ‘Total Access’ program, whether it’s movies or games. If you are paying anything monthly to Blockbuster, the items you rent through that service never have due dates as long as you continue the service.

If you order a movie or game from a store to be mailed to you (as in a one time thing, no plan to sign up for), you will get the item sold to you if you have it for a really long time, which is about 20 days after it’s due.

Also, if you are in Washington at least, you can rent games through the mail already.

It’s pretty apparent the comic writer here has not been anywhere near a Blockbuster in several years.

But one thing to keep in mind for everyone: if you are renting something, but don’t return it, why on earth would you expect to not get dinged for it? I mean, if you borrow someone’s car, even not ‘renting’ it, and never return it….would you expect them to just gift it away? Or to have the cops on your doorstep?

By: Lucas Wolfe

Lucas Wolfe — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:53:08 +0000

And that’s why I use gamefly.

By: Rezlow

Rezlow — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:04:44 +0000

Yeah, but when I used the service I was playing though 6 or more games a month. If I snagged one that I actually thought had lasting appeal (and my tastes are… odd) I would buy it, but most were good for the couple of days. It was a subscription fee where you would just take the game back and take out a different one; as many times as you liked.

Only worth it if you’ve got the time to game though.

By: smikwily

smikwily — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:06:25 +0000

We have been with Blockbuster by Mail since they started up and with the exception of a few issues, we’ve been happy with it. We considered and tried out Netflix, but unless you are using it for streaming, I don’t see much of a need to move. We just put our Netflix account on the 3 month hold this week.

I can get 3 rentals out at a time with unlimited in store exchanges, plus 2 free in store rentals of either a movie or game for $19. If I want a 3 movie package with BluRay with Netflix, it comes out to about the same. And with the big movie companies pushing Netflix to delay their new releases 28-30 days, I don’t see anything pushing back to Netflix unless something really goes south at Blockbuster.

I may be the exception, but as it stands now, Blockbuster offers the value for the price. Granted, I was grandfathered in on most of it, but still, for me it works.

By: tnfreak

tnfreak — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:46:00 +0000

30 bucks a month? i might as well buy the game

By: Rezlow

Rezlow — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:34:38 +0000

Are you sure this isn’t an extension of their $30.00/month-one-game-at-a-time program, like Game-fly? It would make more sense. I used to use that program when I was an achievement whore and would burn through a game in 2-4 days, then need a new one. No time for that now though.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:14:18 +0000

Well, the best thing to do there is to shop local. It may cost a little bit more, but you’re helping to preserve a tiny shred of the individuality in this country. Redbox is part of the problem.