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.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

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

Honestly I think I'd kind of forgotten subscription videogames existed, which was quite nice. I haven't bought any subscription games on Steam, but I have to imagine the functionality is a bit different from what's being suggested here, else Valve would have just used that for video rentals in the first place rather than adding a "rent" option?

[Start_Running]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gus the Crocodile:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

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

Honestly I think I'd kind of forgotten subscription videogames existed, which was quite nice. I haven't bought any subscription games on Steam, but I have to imagine the functionality is a bit different from what's being suggested here, else Valve would have just used that for video rentals in the first place rather than adding a "rent" option?

Functionally they are the same. Buuut, the word 'Rent' carries with it a special meanin g to the consumer hence the usage.

[Supafly]

I used to rent games from a store, Blockbusters, and very often complete the game/s before returning them for around 10% the cost of buying it.

Do that on Steam and others and myself would do the same. Who takes the 75%-90% loss of income? Unless the Devs themselves want to offer this ability Steam would. Even if they both
split to loss equally neither would be willing to agree to such a loss.

[Start_Running]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

I used to rent games from a store, Blockbusters, and very often complete the game/s before returning them for around 10% the cost of buying it.

Do that on Steam and others and myself would do the same. Who takes the 75%-90% loss of income? Unless the Devs themselves want to offer this ability Steam would. Even if they both
split to loss equally neither would be willing to agree to such a loss.

Blockbuster... they're not around anymnore are they?

[Supafly]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

Blockbuster... they're not around anymore are they?

Nope, closed last stores in 2013.

[Start_Running]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

Blockbuster... they're not around anymore are they?

Nope, closed last stores in 2013.

And Gamestop seems to be following suit...

[Supafly]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

And Gamestop seems to be following suit...

Haven't seen one for ages. Wonder if those 7,500 people that signed over their immortal souls to Gamestop will regain them once they've gone? Or will they get sold off when it's assets get sold off.

[Gwarsbane]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

I used to rent games from a store, Blockbusters, and very often complete the game/s before returning them for around 10% the cost of buying it.

Do that on Steam and others and myself would do the same. Who takes the 75%-90% loss of income? Unless the Devs themselves want to offer this ability Steam would. Even if they both
split to loss equally neither would be willing to agree to such a loss.

Blockbuster... they're not around anymnore are they?

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

Blockbuster... they're not around anymore are they?

Nope, closed last stores in 2013.

Actually the second to last store just recently closed within the last year, there is still 1 store open.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/06/business/last-blockbuster-on-the-planet-trnd/index.html
https://globalnews.ca/news/5067378/last-blockbuster-video-store-thriving/

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

Blockbuster... they're not around anymore are they?

Nope, closed last stores in 2013.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/29/17788212/blockbuster-last-video-store-bend-oregon-movie-selection-algorithm-discovery-netflix-hulu-amazon

[Supafly]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwarsbane:

Actually the second to last store just recently closed within the last year, there is still 1 store open.

Ursprungligen skrivet av AmsterdamHeavy:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/29/17788212/blockbuster-last-video-store-bend-oregon-movie-selection-algorithm-discovery-netflix-hulu-amazon

My bad. Should have been specific and said they closed their last stores in the UK in 2013.

Have to say I'm rather shocked they still have 1 over the pond still going.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwarsbane:

Actually the second to last store just recently closed within the last year, there is still 1 store open.

Ursprungligen skrivet av AmsterdamHeavy:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/29/17788212/blockbuster-last-video-store-bend-oregon-movie-selection-algorithm-discovery-netflix-hulu-amazon

My bad. Should have been specific and said they closed their last stores in the UK in 2013.

Have to say I'm rather shocked they still have 1 over the pond still going.

You and me both. There was one left in Alaska before this apparently that closed in early 2018 or in 2017.

As for renting games through Steam. I have no interest.

I buy games for 5 or 7 dollars and have a yeas long backlog. I pay less for games by buying them than I ever would through renting. I just dont care if I dont play a game for 2 or 3 years or whatever.

[Gwarsbane]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwarsbane:

Actually the second to last store just recently closed within the last year, there is still 1 store open.

Ursprungligen skrivet av AmsterdamHeavy:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/29/17788212/blockbuster-last-video-store-bend-oregon-movie-selection-algorithm-discovery-netflix-hulu-amazon

My bad. Should have been specific and said they closed their last stores in the UK in 2013.

Have to say I'm rather shocked they still have 1 over the pond still going.

ya its one of those things where you have to check the website 2 or 3 times just to make sure its not the Onion or something. lol



At the OP
As for the topic at hand, game companies have been trying to get rid of game renting in stores for as long as they have been around. Thanks to how the internet is now, they can do that. Download speeds are decent, though it can still take days for some to download games but generally most people have an always on kind of net connection which means the software can connect up and check things so games are not tied to an account for good. No removing it.


The developers/publishers get next to nothing out of renting a game to someone to play it. They get far more from selling it to someone.

The only way they would get something more out by renting is if they charged a lot to rent games. Like 2 or 3 dollars an hour at a minimum. anything that only takes minutes to play, would never be rented cause its cheaper to just buy it. Heck even at these prices it would be cheaper to buy the games.

So again this is not going to happen, because as we already know, they already have subscriptions on steam which is exactly the same thing, which pretty much no one uses.

This is how I see the future of stores like Steam. Games will either be buy once and keep forever. Or they will be free to play with microtransactions to pass for things. And I think more games will move towards the free to play method and be a "live service" as they call them so they can do minimal work with most money coming in.

Hopefully people will wake up and stop buying stuff with microtransactions so that we can get back to better games with more substance and story and less "hey look how flashy I can make my character/weapons while playing against you".

Ursprungligen skrivet av AmsterdamHeavy:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Suicidal Monkey:

My bad. Should have been specific and said they closed their last stores in the UK in 2013.

Have to say I'm rather shocked they still have 1 over the pond still going.

You and me both. There was one left in Alaska before this apparently that closed in early 2018 or in 2017.

As for renting games through Steam. I have no interest.

I buy games for 5 or 7 dollars and have a yeas long backlog. I pay less for games by buying them than I ever would through renting. I just dont care if I dont play a game for 2 or 3 years or whatever.

Same here, I have many years long back log too, though some of that is due to needing a major system upgrade cause some of my top games I can't even load on this system.

[Start_Running]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwarsbane:

The only way they would get something more out by renting is if they charged a lot to rent games. Like 2 or 3 dollars an hour at a minimum. anything that only takes minutes to play, would never be rented cause its cheaper to just buy it. Heck even at these prices it would be cheaper to buy the games.

It's worth noting that its not for lack of trying. Sega of America actually worked with Blockbuster on a few projects but they all failed or fell through.

Interesting not is, that rentals also informed game design for a while. More than a few games ha d mid game puzzles or difficulty spikes that were specifically there to make sure people who rented it would nbever be able to finish the game.

[Lion'el Johnson]

Ursprungligen skrivet av 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.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Lion'el:

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)

No it doesn't - I don't like or dislike any discussion of ideas all that matters is the truthfulness of it, the relevancy of it, or the possibility of it. Since I already knew about free weekends and so forth it should be obvious that it doesn't much matter to me that the free weekend exists. My idea is about the possibility of adding a renting feature to steam therefore the comment is irrelevant. The only part of the comment that is relevant is that "renting won't ever happen" perhaps this is true, but maybe it isn't true.

It might indeed be possible to make a renting feature for the games the same way that sony, and xbox does it.

So just shutting down the idea doesn't seem very relevant to me. Unless the people who run steam itself say they will never consider it or if it can be shown to me with real data I wouldn't pay it any mind, but some random joe making speculations shutting down an idea doesn't convince me.

[Lion'el Johnson]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gus the Crocodile:

Honestly I think I'd kind of forgotten subscription videogames existed, which was quite nice. I haven't bought any subscription games on Steam, but I have to imagine the functionality is a bit different from what's being suggested here, else Valve would have just used that for video rentals in the first place rather than adding a "rent" option?

Functionally they are the same. Buuut, the word 'Rent' carries with it a special meanin g to the consumer hence the usage.

do the subscriptions give you access to every game? If not then it does not mean the same thing.