Add a renting feature for every game

[Lion'el Johnson]

Dear steam, I want to suggest that you allow us to rent games before we buy them. Kind of like blockbuster, and Hollywood video from back in the day. The reason why I want to make this suggestion is because you will save your customers headaches by letting them try the games before they waste their money on it. I have purchased games one too many times that were a complete waste of the money I used to buy it. Please consider giving us a rental option. Thank you

By the way, I love steam so this isn't a complaint ultimately. It's just an idea.

Edit: After reading several users comments - I think that maybe renting is not really the right concept. In all fairness digital products does not give users real ownership of the product the same way that old cds give us ownership. I have lost access to several games already for one reason or another. In so many ways this means that even though we are "buying" the digital product we can still lose that product so it isn't actually buying it. I guess what might be better would be to create a digital library which gives you unlimited access to games old and new, and just use a subscription model.

Still I miss the idea of collecting games and actually owning them.

[Cathulhu]

So, you want to rent a game for cheap, play through the story and then end the rent, right?
So, the price for the rent will be lower than for selling the game.
How is Steam making money out of this again? In fact, your suggestion would make them lose tons of money.

If you are interested in a game, inform yourself before you buy it.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Lion'el:

Dear steam, I want to suggest that you allow us to rent games before we buy them. Kind of like blockbuster, and Hollywood video from back in the day. The reason why I want to make this suggestion is because you will make a lot of money from it first of all, and you will save your customers headaches by letting them try the games before they waste their money on it. I have purchased games one too many times that were a complete waste of the money I used to buy it. Please consider giving us a rental option. Thank you

By the way, I love steam so this isn't a complaint ultimately. It's just an idea.

A very poor idea. The price to rent would either be so high as to gurantee you could never get close to beating the game, or it would be abused and cost them a fortune. Plus steam cannot do this. It would be up to each individual publisher to offer this and its not something they have any interest in.

[Gwarsbane]

What you want is a demo, go ask the developers of the games for a demo.

You also need to do more research before buying a game. Look at videos of game play, reviews not just on steam, but on other sites including youtube. Ask questions.


This idea has been suggested before, its a bad idea. Not just because people will be able to play full games without the developers/publishers and Steam not making the amount of money they had from a sale of the game, but every single game would have to have a different renting costs.

How would you rent a game that can be 15 minutes total? Or 20 hours? Or 50 hours? or a game that you could play for 500+ hours?

Do you rent by the real world hour, or do you rent by the game hour?

Renting games are very different from renting movies. And I still would not rent a movie, buying it is the better option.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I'll restate what I posted in your other thread...

Free weeks and weekends already exist.

Devs can already opt into it.

Renting "any title" in the store will never happen.

[Lion'el Johnson]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

So, you want to rent a game for cheap, play through the story and then end the rent, right?
So, the price for the rent will be lower than for selling the game.
How is Steam making money out of this again? In fact, your suggestion would make them lose tons of money.

If you are interested in a game, inform yourself before you buy it.

Not exactly I don't think of renting as a means to complete a game, mainly because I don't like games any longer that do not have some kind of persistence. In other words I typically buy games that I think I can play for a long time. I do typically do research, but sometimes you just cannot get a real feel for a game except for when you play it. So my motive for wanting to allow renting either for like a day or maybe a week or however long is so that I can actually get into the game and see if it is something worth buying.

Otherwise I will literally just wait until the game is basically almost free anyways before I buy it.

[Lion'el Johnson]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

What you want is a demo, go ask the developers of the games for a demo.

You also need to do more research before buying a game. Look at videos of game play, reviews not just on steam, but on other sites including youtube. Ask questions.


This idea has been suggested before, its a bad idea. Not just because people will be able to play full games without the developers/publishers and Steam not making the amount of money they had from a sale of the game, but every single game would have to have a different renting costs.

How would you rent a game that can be 15 minutes total? Or 20 hours? Or 50 hours? or a game that you could play for 500+ hours?

Do you rent by the real world hour, or do you rent by the game hour?

Renting games are very different from renting movies. And I still would not rent a movie, buying it is the better option.

Is it possible to just ask publisher /developers for a demo? If I can do that, that would be cool. I wouldn't need to rent the game then.

edit: I always do research, but as stated above I never feel like it is quite enough. Sometimes even after looking up all that I can at the moment even going to watch youtube videos of the game I just won't know until I start playing the game.

[Lion'el Johnson]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I'll restate what I posted in your other thread...

Free weeks and weekends already exist.

Devs can already opt into it.

Renting "any title" in the store will never happen.

:qr:

This comment is almost irrelevant to me, because it misses my overall point.

[Wolf Knight]

making a game demo takes time. and that time could be used to improve the game instead. a demo is only going to give you a taste of the game, sometimes the demo will not give enough, sometimes it gives too much.

Originally posted by Lion'el:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I'll restate what I posted in your other thread...

Free weeks and weekends already exist.

Devs can already opt into it.

Renting "any title" in the store will never happen.

:qr:

This comment is almost irrelevant to me, because it misses my overall point.

that statement is very relevant to you and this discussion. it also hits your overall point, you just dont like it.

the game dev's can give free weekends if they want. that lets you play the game for free (cheaper then renting it) and you have access to the entire game (more access then a demo gives)

[Washell]

Originally posted by Lion'el:

Otherwise I will literally just wait until the game is basically almost free anyways before I buy it.

They're fine with that. That's why the price drops that low at the tail-end of a game's life. To get us patient ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by Lion'el:

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

What you want is a demo, go ask the developers of the games for a demo.

You also need to do more research before buying a game. Look at videos of game play, reviews not just on steam, but on other sites including youtube. Ask questions.


This idea has been suggested before, its a bad idea. Not just because people will be able to play full games without the developers/publishers and Steam not making the amount of money they had from a sale of the game, but every single game would have to have a different renting costs.

How would you rent a game that can be 15 minutes total? Or 20 hours? Or 50 hours? or a game that you could play for 500+ hours?

Do you rent by the real world hour, or do you rent by the game hour?

Renting games are very different from renting movies. And I still would not rent a movie, buying it is the better option.

Is it possible to just ask publisher /developers for a demo? If I can do that, that would be cool. I wouldn't need to rent the game then.

edit: I always do research, but as stated above I never feel like it is quite enough. Sometimes even after looking up all that I can at the moment even going to watch youtube videos of the game I just won't know until I start playing the game.

Yes you can always ask developers to make a demo for their games.


99.99% won't because its a huge waste of time and money. They also usually hurt sales more then they help, but there is nothing stopping you from asking.

https://www.google.ca/search?source=hp&q=demos+hurt+sales
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/game-demos-can-hurt-sales-suggests-research/1100-6410863/



You also have 2 hours to refund the game, buy a game you like, test if, if you can't stand it return it. But remember don't do this too often because refunding games can be taken away from you.

[Gus the Crocodile]

I don't see the problem with Steam having the basic functionality available for devs to opt into and customise if they want to (eg. choosing timeframes). I mean Valve already had rentals as an option when they were selling videos, it's not like it's a huge new addition.

Not sure how much dev interest there would be, but giving devs options doesn't hurt.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

I don't see the problem with Steam having the basic functionality available for devs to opt into and customise if they want to (eg. choosing timeframes). I mean Valve already had rentals as an option when they were selling videos, it's not like it's a huge new addition.

Not sure how much dev interest there would be, but giving devs options doesn't hurt.

That's what free weekend and demos are for....

[Gus the Crocodile]

My post was about allowing devs the option of renting their games for a timeframe of their choosing, if they want to. That is clearly and demonstrably not what free weekends and demos are for.

If you want to address someone who merely wants any mechanism for "trying out" games, great, but that isn't me.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

My post was about allowing devs the option of renting their games for a timeframe of their choosing, if they want to. That is clearly and demonstrably not what free weekends and demos are for.

If you want to address someone who merely wants any mechanism for "trying out" games, great, but that isn't me.

Devs already have a means of doing this via the subscription system.

[Garou]

Maybe Google Stadia will be a thing for you.