How significant are game sales TO rental places? Gamefly, blockbuster, etc all have to buy the games before they rent them, how significant are their purchases to a games total sales? Are these numbers reported in sales charts or are they under the radar?

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/game-rentals-eating-into-purchases--magid/18656

Gamedaily has an article on how game renters rarely purchase the title they rent. Myself, with reviews I already know enough about a game and if it's worth playing. I'd only rent games I had no intention of buying. Lots of games that are short or have low replay value but still fun is almost the definition of a "rental" when you refer to games.

Probably not much of a chance of a game being profitable with just rental store purchases though.

I think they're pretty significant to more niche games....I saw multiple, multiple copies of games like Earth Defense Force 2017 at various Blockbusters where I live (maybe 7-10 copies between 2 BB's).

However, outside of shipments, I doubt there's a way to track them. They get their games directly from a distributor that's not afiliated with any rental service.

I would *think* that many games wind up with 50k sales from American rental services, if not more. That could significantly impact the smaller games.

if only we had game renting in France... ;-(( i would play so many games...

I am not sure. I have thought about this before, though. I noticed that area BB stores tend to get 3-4 copies of the biggest games and just 1-2 copies of most games. I could imagine maybe 10k sales for almost any game published by a major company because of this. However, these are are then resold by Hastings, Blockbuster, and Gametap at low prices.

Demos seem to offer a better promise of possible sales but companies are still not using demos greatly.

I suggest everyone in the UK checks out their local libraries as the 2 near me stock PS2/Xbox/PSP/DS/PS3/Xbox360 and Wii games for only £2 / £2.60 per week which compares to Blockbuster 200 yards away who charge £3.95 for 2 nights on Xbox360/PS3 games and doesn't even rent out Wii games.

Pretty good selection of Xbox 360 / PS2 and DS / PSP games as well and the libraries erm library of PS3 and Wii games is growing.

I would think every UK library now has an online catalogue so you don't even need to go into the specky four eyes bookworm den (j/k) to check out what they have.

Any other countries libraries offer this service?

*Edit 

I also happen to know that many libraries in the UK, (maybe it's countrywide) give new members a FREE rental of Game/DVD/CD.

For this site it doesn't matter because it's treated the same way as a sale to a retailer. We track sell-through to consumers, and rental places don't count. What might be more interesting to track is rental volume to consumers, hmmm.

everytime i got to blockbuster they have 2 or so shelves dedicated to pgr4 and their always all gone. same with dirt. i guess racing games arent worth the 60 dollars nowadays seeing as how so many are rented compared to bought.