In a move of desperation, Gamestop is about to offer a game rental service at their brick and mortar locations. Their program, Powerpass, will enable members to rent an unlimited amount of games during their 6 month membership. For a $60 fee gamers can select from GameStop’s plethora of used game inventory. This service will be available to their Power-Up members which is already a $20 fee yearly. Bringing your yearly total to $140 if you chose to subscribe to Powerpass for the year’s entirety.
Members can only have one rental out at a time, but may swap that game out an unlimited number of times during their 6 month membership. At the end of the 6 months they may chose one game to keep permanently as their membership expires. So, in reality, this feels more like a lease with the option to buy type of situation. If you try 50 games during that 6 month period you can chose your favorite to keep as your own
Is this a last ditch effort to stay afloat for Gamestop before they go the way of the dinosaur, the way that companies like Blockbuster did before them, or brilliant strategy that will pay off handsomely for them? Only time will tell. They seem to be throwing up a number of Hail Mary passes lately just hoping that something will stick.
While Gamestop has tried various rental type promotions in the past, most recently one in select cities that enabled members to rent games for a 3 month period for a fee of $50, this appears to be a more permanent fixture for the game retailer.
Handsome Phantom is no stranger when it comes to writing about Gamestop and their struggles to stay relevant, in an earlier article we examined whether or not they could stay relevant in the changing climate of game retailers. With no program in place to combat competitors like Amazon and Best Buy they seem to be gasping for their last breath.
Gamestop clearly has an over abundance of used games at every location, but is this the solution? The chain already allows you to try out their used games and return them within 7 days if you’re not completely satisfied with the game. Wouldn’t this already be a form of rental service? Are they now competing with themselves? These are questions that patrons of the store will determine when the program launches on November 19.
