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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why is renting games legal?

Desroko on 22 May 2009
liquidninja said:
bardicverse said:

 

Did they? If they sold 5 copies of the game to Blockbuster, who in turn had 505 people rent the game, then did the developer/publisher lose 500 sales?...

 

 

You can't lose what you never had.

 

The law and economics  disagree. Loss of opportunity is a well-established concept in both.



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Samus Aran on 22 May 2009

Renting games is illegal in Belgium.

I hate my fucking goverment. They stink, they sell everything to the french as well.



liquidninja on 22 May 2009

@bardicverse

My analogy is sound:

Publishers not selling games because of renting, second hand market and pirating = Homeless man not selling sneak peeks because of laws against flashing and the full stomach's of people passing by.



Carl on 22 May 2009

Example why its good...
Terminator Salvation -
Release price : £40
Rent price : £5 for the night?
Game time : 4 Hours.

I know what id pick.



                            

bardicverse on 22 May 2009
liquidninja said:
@bardicverse

My analogy is sound:

Publishers not selling games because of renting, second hand market and pirating = Homeless man not selling sneak peeks because of laws against flashing and the full stomach's of people passing by.

It makes no sense, it is illogical. You equate a homeless man being confined by laws to publishers selling games. Selling games is not an illegal practice. Your statement fails, its not even witty, if that was your goal.

 



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bardicverse on 22 May 2009
Soleron said:
bardicverse said:
liquidninja said:

...

Are you even trying to have a discussion here, or just bored? That analogy doesn't even make sense.

If a person rents a game, they are obviously somewhat interested in the game. Let's take Halo, just to have a subject. People hear about Halo, are interested in playing it. This is your potential market.

They have 3 options:

Buy, Rent, Borrow (from friend, etc)

If they rent and don't buy afterwards, a portion of that potential market for Halo sales has vanished, resulting in less copies sold.

If they buy, that is the active market, resulting in sales and eventually profit.

If they borrow but don't eventually buy, it is like renting, but no money is involved at all.

So in essence, only 1/3rd of the potential Halo market will be profitable for the developer/publisher.

Now, if there was no renting option, then 1/2 of the potential Halo market would be profitable to the developer/publisher.

Follow me now?

 

 

 

I think they have four options: Buy, Rent, Borrow or Not Get Due to Lack of Access to a Trial Period. I think a significant proportion of potential buyers of e.g. Halo are put off by the $50 entry barrier to see whether they like it and have no access to borrowing a copy. Renting is the best solution, and if they judge the game to have enough value to last more than the rental period, they then buy it. With no renting, they wouldn't have bought it.

This has two implications. One, renting makes some sales happen that otherwise wouldn't have. Two, renting rewards those publishers that make the games have lasting value beyond 5 days. So, it's good for developers and increases game quality.

 

I fully agree here, Ive used rentals to make decisions to purchase games. A question then for you - would a demo of a game fill that lack of borrowing a copy/renting?

 



liquidninja on 22 May 2009

@bardicverse

Is the homeless man losing money because he'd be able to flash people for money? (But can't because of the law and full stomachs)



bardicverse on 22 May 2009
liquidninja said:
@bardicverse

Is the homeless man losing money because he'd be able to flash people for money? (But can't because of the law and full stomachs)

You need to work on your analogies. You repeating the same thing over and over doesn't make your analogy any better.

 



Soleron on 22 May 2009
bardicverse said:
Soleron said:
...
...

 

I fully agree here, Ive used rentals to make decisions to purchase games. A question then for you - would a demo of a game fill that lack of borrowing a copy/renting?

 

Yes. It does fill that need. However. when the two most popular consoles (Wii and DS) don't support downloading demos it's not a universal option.

Independent of that I believe (and this is a moral argument so I accept that you may disagree) renting their single physical copy out is a right any consumer has because they bought the product. I also think using several copies of the software for personal use (e.g. playing over LAN with someone else in your house) is a right. Playing the game at the same time as you're renting to another user is not within their rights though. Again though, this is just my position.

 



liquidninja on 22 May 2009

@bardicverse
It's a good analogy if you can see the correlation between the two blaming external factors for not having as much money as they want.