Hollywood Video Game Rentals

[Sirharper]

About a week ago I told the story of how I went to my local Hollywood Video store and rented a 360 game. When the price seemed higher than I was used to I inquired about the increase. There is this cutie manager there I have been friendly with for awhile and she told me they added an additional $1.50 to the rental price of 360 games. ONLY 360 games. She did not volunteer the reason why so I asked. She said they have been having a high rate of 360 discs becoming damaged as compared to other consoles. I said it was likely due to people that keep their consoles upright and she seemed to agree.

She also offered for 35 cents (on games for all consoles) for a "protection plan" to gaurd against damage.

Anybody else notice a surcharge being added for 360 games? Anybody think this has anything to do with them taking a big hit on 360 game rentals because of Xbox Live Diamond discounts?

Also I noticed they were now renting High-Defination movies now...the format...BLU-RAY ONLY!!!!!

Still think HD-DVD has won?

[DeaconBlade]

they should be sued for doing that. but i guess it's their store policy and choice. i rent a lot from blockbuster and haven't heard of any excessive 360 disks being returned and blockbuster is a bit larger than hollywood video in dallas.

it's not a nationwide thing i'm sure. perhaps just that store and area for some reason. and blockbuster only rents hd-dvd here in dallas...well my local one anyway. no idea if they plan to do blu-ray as well or if that's just how corporations have aligned themselves.

[Sirharper]

Gee I wonder which worthless troll 1-stared my thread. Nevermind, I guess there is only one isn't there?

I drive right past a Blockbuster mainly because of the Live Diamond discount and 5-day rentals at Hollywood. You can bet that if Viacom hadn't spun off Blockbuster they wouldn't be renting only HD-DVD. Viacom like most major studios is firmly aligned with Blu-Ray.

Deac, you do know from the forums upright 360's do tend to scratch up discs. Seems plausible.

[UNSCleric]

I've had mine upright from day one, and played probably 40-50 games and have never had a scratch. I've done it that way with both my systems, and so does my friend I gave my third one to. Sounds like user-error to me.

[DeaconBlade]

well i've had mine upright for over a year now and i haven't had a single scratched disc...but yeah i've heard the claims about it...as with all claims, shit happens sometimes :lol:

[Souf Centrol]

It's funny I've always had my 360 upright and never had a disk to scratch, and I think blue-ray is going to win

[Sirharper]

UPDATE

I checked Blockbuster today and they were renting both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
A check of Netflix indicated they too are renting both formats.

[Sirharper]

It's funny I've always had my 360 upright and never had a disk to scratch, and I think blue-ray is going to win

I'd say it's still 50/50 as to which will "win".

I certainly hope Blu-Ray wins out. It's the better format with much better hardware and studio support.

I'm still waiting to see which format Onkyo selects. They let me down when they picked XM for sat radio support. Another letdown from them and my next system will be Harmon Kardon.

[Twylyght Myst]

About a week ago I told the story of how I went to my local Hollywood Video store and rented a 360 game. When the price seemed higher than I was used to I inquired about the increase. There is this cutie manager there I have been friendly with for awhile and she told me they added an additional $1.50 to the rental price of 360 games. ONLY 360 games. She did not volunteer the reason why so I asked. She said they have been having a high rate of 360 discs becoming damaged as compared to other consoles. I said it was likely due to people that keep their consoles upright and she seemed to agree.

She also offered for 35 cents (on games for all consoles) for a "protection plan" to gaurd against damage.

Anybody else notice a surcharge being added for 360 games? Anybody think this has anything to do with them taking a big hit on 360 game rentals because of Xbox Live Diamond discounts?



Maybe it is because they are losing money to mail rental places such as Gamefly and Netflix? :dunno: That they have to charge that "protection fee".

Honestly I don't know how they can because it should be covered under thier insurance and they could probably just write it off in taxes as a business expense.

I know when I worked part-time at Movie gallery, which was really fun by the way, any damaged games got shipped back to home office for inventory and we never charged a protection fee.

I know the hollywood video here charges 8.00 for a Xbox 360 game which is crazy!! Especially when Movie Gallery only charges 4.99...

But it does seem to be a bit excessive to charge an extra 1.50 for xbox 360 game and then offer you the protection fee on top of that. I would say that should be covered in the 1.50!!!

[Sirharper]

I can't see the lost money thing being part of the reason considering the other offereings do not have the inflated price. Maybe we could blame Live Diamond some for 360 users being able to rent 2-for-1 with it.

Profiting is always preferable to writing of losses but I'm not sure how much a higher rate of 360 game damage would impact either.

Even with the added $1.50 that brings the rental price here to $8.50 so that seems in-line with your area's pricing. Of course that means that PS3, Wii, PS2 and even original Xbox games here rent for $7.00.

Yeah that is odd they charge $1.50 more then still want to ask for the $0.35 for a protection plan.