Support NeoGAF

[Sakura]

When I was a kid I would've still preferred to own the latest, say, Final Fantasy, versus having to rent it and give it back. Difference is I didn't have any money to outright buy games.
It was also great if you were having a friend for a sleep-over, you could go rent some new game together and spend the weekend playing it.
Plus, as a kid, I would only get say a couple games a year via Birthday or Christmas, so most of the year I would have literally nothing to play except for the same games I'd already beaten 100 times. Nowadays though I own many games I've never gotten around to finishing and still buy new games.

And keep in mind, you could rent anything, even big blockbuster games on the day of their release (assuming of course they hadn't all been rented out). Gamepass is a limited selection of mostly older games I would've already purchased if I was interested in them.

 

[baphomet]

Because paying ~$200 a year to rent a bunch of shit that I've either already played, or that just straight up sucks, isn't a good deal.

At least with physical rentals you could rent all the new release games and not just whatever scraps show up on Game pass 90% of the year.

 

[MagnesD3]

One Rentals werent designed to take over the industry they were never meant to take away personal ownership, Two games were few snd far between information was also low so it was a very magical place to find out new things you may have never heard about and Three were no longer poor kids who are dumb and depend on our parents income.

 

[AfnanAcchan]

With rental you can choose what you want to play.

 

[Crayon]

Because what you actually loved was the experience of going into a rental store, all excited browsing through the shelves not knowing what you would find, talking with employees of the store and other customers, wondering which game you would pick up next.

Yeah, that's it. Getting in the car with your parents on friday night and picking out a game while your parents wanted some boring grownup movie.

Hate to fuck up your childhood btw but your parents also picked out a porno while you were distracted.

 

[Doom85]

What’s this “we” business? As a kid, I always saw renting as some lesser alternative to just owning the game. Like, I rented Pokémon Snap because I heard the game length was really short, but even then I’d have preferred to own it.

But yeah, I rarely rented games back then. Movies were a different story because as a kid I could mostly only see G or PG movies anyway (growing up in a Christian household meant no PG-13 until you were 13 and likewise no R until you were 17 AKA some serious bullshit, but them’s the breaks) so I already owned most of the movies I highly cared about and I didn’t mind renting what was left after that. But games were a different story. If I liked it even somewhat, I always wanted access to it, not having it taken away from me.

Also, I didn’t like the pressure. There was no worry in finishing a movie in the rental time period. But even a short game I would have preferred taking my time and maybe 100%ing it as much as possible, but likely can’t due to having to return it.

 

[Kumomeme]

as i understand, the store bought the games first before rent it to customer. they still buy and own each of the game, game still sold it and customer become like 3rd customer. they also usually only rent because they has low budget. people would still bought it.

while subs service, direct 'rent' from the company and it also was push as the 'future', encourage culture to stop buy but subs completely.

the amount also different. you rent payment like what? depend on how many game?

while subs service has specific 1 price for whole catalogue

 

[Thanati]

Because, back in the UK, a PlayStation 1 rental for 5 days was 2.99.

Even if you rented it twice to complete it, it was still cheaper.

 

[Three]

Wong long, lies of P and Monster Hunter are low quality games?

Sounds like a porno

 

[Clintizzle]

For the same price as all the TloU games, I can have 2 years of PlayStation Plus Extra and enjoy a tonne of games.

I completely respect people's need to feel like they own the games they play, I just don't think they have the right to shit on sub-services until subscriptions are the ONLY way to play games.

 

[Clintizzle]

Because, back in the UK, a PlayStation 1 rental for 5 days was 2.99.

Even if you rented it twice to complete it, it was still cheaper.

 

[adamsapple]

I still love and utilize both rentals and subs

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Paying a one-time fee to rent a single game is different from paying a monthly subscription to access a library of games

 

[thismeinteil]

Because rental was a part of a larger business. It's goal wasn't to destroy game ownership and have us all renting games, as well as become accustomed to "you will own nothing and you will love it."

And at the time we had less access to in-depth reviews and gameplay vids, so we didn't know if we were going to like a game enough to pay $50+ to own it. Renting gave us a chance to try multiple games without breaking your parents' banks.

There's also something to be said about actually physically going to a rental store and browsing all of the games. Reading the descriptions and looking at pics on the backs of the cases before choosing the one you wanted. Then physically holding the game in the car on the drive back, reading the manual and looking forward to trying it out.

 

[reinking]

First, I don't hate Game Pass and PS+. I am going to let both lapse because I am going to simplify my gaming experience as much as I can in this day and age. I'm not dumb, gaming isn't too complicated for me to understand it, it is just becoming a lot less fun. I think I am going to get back to the old simple transactions with these game companies I used to enjoy. If you make a product I like, I will give you money, you give me the product, our relationship ends there.

IMO, the biggest difference is both of these subs are trying to drive me to a specific platform where my rentals from a place like Blockbuster were driven by my choice of platform. It is also a push toward an all digital future that I really do not want.

I guess I really am turning into my father. A grumpy old arsehole.

 

[DeepSpace5D]

Probably because back in the day you only payed for the game/games you wanted to rent, and you got to choose the specific game you are renting.

Quite a bit different than have a recurring monthly payment and having a company choose what games are available for you to rent.

 

[T-0800]

This is simply not true. Examples?

Forza.

 

[LRKD]

I think a big part of it now, is that subscription serveries are the road for corporations to eliminate physical ownership, and consumer rights. Makes it harder to enjoy when you know you are actively working against your own interests.

A couple other reasons I can think of that would make subs less appealing than physical rental.
It's not as special, going to block buster and renting a game over the weekend, was a whole event, a joy to look forward to. You go out, buy pizza and soda, bring home a game, and ejoy the weekend. Downloading games off a subscription isn't an event, it's not special.
I suppose, also a physical rental place, and a subscription service would have completely different catalogues to rent from. Perhaps game passes catalogue just isn't as appealing as the games you rented from blockbuster back in the day.

 

[Robb]

When you are a kid everything was an adventure, you loved every second and you had all the time in the world.

You pestered your dad to take you to Blockbuster on friday after eagerly waiting all week.

You finally pull up in your dad's car and see that familiar blue and yellow ticket logo at the front of the store, you jump out and rush in, making a bee line for the wall of videogames for rent. You stand in front of all these game covers you most likely know nothing about, they all promise adventures and worlds you know nothing about.

You stand in front of this big catalogue for what seems like hours, you end up settling for a couple games, one single player for your Playstation system probably a RPG that you definitely will get stuck in and won't beat and one of your favorite multiplayer game to play with your friends and siblings. Sometimes it's Mario Kart, other times it's Smash bros or Goldeneye on the N64.

Your dad picks up a some movies for the family for the family and perhaps you might convince him to rent your favorite movie: Space Jam! one more time, alongside some popcorn and candies.

You get home and proceed to play the living hell out of those games all weekend, attempting to beat them inside the time limit.

It's sunday night now, you watch Space Jam with the family, you have some of that popcorn and candy. You are happy, life's good. The best part? You'll get to do it all over again next weekend! You go to bed happy.


You wake up, it's now 2024, your body is fully grown, you're an adult. You have a responsibilities, a SO, a family, perhaps just a pet or you live alone. Regardless, you go to work and other social activities in your schedule. You're tired.

Blockbuster has gone out of business long ago. Your friends and no longer come around your house to play multiplayer games, you don't live with your siblings anymore. Most games don't even have local coop nowadays.

You have money and access to thousands of games, they are one click of a button away in your digital rental service, you no longer switch cartridges or discs. Everything is available and in the palm of your hands, you get ready to find something to play for the night; you see all these game titles and catchy artwork.

Eventually you find something that looks interesting enough, but first you have to check reviews and read forums to see if the game is going to be worth your time, god forbid you play a low rated game, no sir. After 30 minutes of research you reach the conclusion that this particular game isn't worth your time. "Alright! I'll just find another one!" You say to no one in particular.

Its now 11PM. You wake up disoriented in your couch, "oh well, guess I was too tired huh? I'll just play tomorrow" you think to yourself. "Tomorrow will be the day, for sure".

For a second you smell something a familiar, a scent of popcorn and candy but it's just a trick of your mind. You are hungry so you prepare a microwave burrito. Dinner is served.

You take your Burrito to the couch so you can eat while watching something, feeling a little nostalgic you put on the new Space Jam movie that came out a little while ago. You devour your burrito and finish the movie.


You are tired, you go to bed. Space Jam 2 sucked.


You wake up, it is still 2024.

You go to work.

 

[LakeOf9]

Oh I love subs all right, just not the gaming kind ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[Danjin44]

When I was a kid I didn't have no choice other than rent games because back then I GOT ME NO MONEY!

 

[MiguelItUp]

Grew up with divorced parents, couldn't always afford brand new games, so I frequently rented games. I love Game Pass and similar subscriptions as long as the price and offer is right. It just feels like renting, but even better because there's a larger library and you aren't limited to how many you can check out at one time.

I just got Ubi+ to check out Prince of Persia: Lost Crown, figured I'll check out Avatar too. Worth $15 IMO.

 

[nkarafo]

I don't hate rentals as an option. I hate the idea of rentals completely replacing ownership. Which is where everything is heading.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Ownership. I rented from Blockbuster a lot. Hastings was another place I rented SNES and Genesis from. I actually got my PS4 from Hastings at midnight. Some people say I was lucky cause my parents bought me multiple consoles and a TV for my bedroom growing up. They’d take me to rent games a lot and I’d get a game every now and then.

I got sick of the way the game cases smelled, the ugly stickers, and the fact I didn’t own the game. I had to return it. Buying a game use to be a huge deal. It was part of your collection.
I used GameFly back with Infinite Warfare and I hated it. It felt as life if real life wasn’t great. I’d have to go through some process to get it back. I don’t want a sub.

I guess it’s ok for some stuff. I did play Gears 5 and Halo Infinite day 1 on GamePass. I also enjoy unlocks, a lot of stuff isn’t on a sub service, and I don’t have to worry about subbing to play. I have years of excessive games with Steam, GOG, etc. I don’t have to worry about a sub to play those games.

It’s probably a mental thing. I honestly don’t like it as much as owning a game even though it could be cheaper. I cherry pick my games due to time management. I don’t need a couple hundred different games when I can only focus on a few select titles at once. I’d rather pay full price.

I’m not a movie or TV person, so those being in a sub isn’t a big deal to me. Games are another story. Games on a sub service don’t hold much value if you ask me. It’s less exciting. Somehow Halo Infinite and Gears 5 worked out. I finished both games in a week and let the sub run out. I also haven’t played my Xbox since rolling the credits in Halo Infinite either.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Because large file sizes and limited hard drive space mean you have to constantly make room and then spend time downloading games instead of just plopping them in the console and just playing them.

Subs also only make sense if you can play many different games throughout the year, most adults are short on time these days so the value of subs is not great, but that's subjective.

 

[existensmaximum]

When you are a kid everything was an adventure, you loved every second and you had all the time in the world.

You pestered your dad to take you to Blockbuster on friday after eagerly waiting all week.

You finally pull up in your dad's car and see that familiar blue and yellow ticket logo at the front of the store, you jump out and rush in, making a bee line for the wall of videogames for rent. You stand in front of all these game covers you most likely know nothing about, they all promise adventures and worlds you know nothing about.

You stand in front of this big catalogue for what seems like hours, you end up settling for a couple games, one single player for your Playstation system probably a RPG that you definitely will get stuck in and won't beat and one of your favorite multiplayer game to play with your friends and siblings. Sometimes it's Mario Kart, other times it's Smash bros or Goldeneye on the N64.

Your dad picks up a some movies for the family for the family and perhaps you might convince him to rent your favorite movie: Space Jam! one more time, alongside some popcorn and candies.

You get home and proceed to play the living hell out of those games all weekend, attempting to beat them inside the time limit.

It's sunday night now, you watch Space Jam with the family, you have some of that popcorn and candy. You are happy, life's good. The best part? You'll get to do it all over again next weekend! You go to bed happy.


You wake up, it's now 2024, your body is fully grown, you're an adult. You have a responsibilities, a SO, a family, perhaps just a pet or you live alone. Regardless, you go to work and other social activities in your schedule. You're tired.

Blockbuster has gone out of business long ago. Your friends and no longer come around your house to play multiplayer games, you don't live with your siblings anymore. Most games don't even have local coop nowadays.

You have money and access to thousands of games, they are one click of a button away in your digital rental service, you no longer switch cartridges or discs. Everything is available and in the palm of your hands, you get ready to find something to play for the night; you see all these game titles and catchy artwork.

Eventually you find something that looks interesting enough, but first you have to check reviews and read forums to see if the game is going to be worth your time, god forbid you play a low rated game, no sir. After 30 minutes of research you reach the conclusion that this particular game isn't worth your time. "Alright! I'll just find another one!" You say to no one in particular.

Its now 11PM. You wake up disoriented in your couch, "oh well, guess I was too tired huh? I'll just play tomorrow" you think to yourself. "Tomorrow will be the day, for sure".

For a second you smell something a familiar, a scent of popcorn and candy but it's just a trick of your mind. You are hungry so you prepare a microwave burrito. Dinner is served.

You take your Burrito to the couch so you can eat while watching something, feeling a little nostalgic you put on the new Space Jam movie that came out a little while ago. You devour your burrito and finish the movie.


You are tired, you go to bed. Space Jam 2 sucked.


You wake up, it is still 2024.

You go to work.

Nailed it.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Renting was indeed glorious, and if the game sucked then at least you didn't pay full price for it, because games back then were already hella expensive; some cartridges were more expensive than games are today and I'm not even talking about inflation, just the literal price tag.

 

[stickkidsam]

Rentals are cool. Gamepass as a rental service is cool. Services replacing the ability to actually buy and own a game is not cool.

I think perhaps Gamepass gets tossed into that pile since it is part of the all digital trend, even if it isn’t necessarily the same. I enjoy the service myself but I do despise the idea of Gamepass being used as proof that players don’t want to own their games.

 

[DrFigs]

i dont remember loving blockbuster. i was always way more excited to go to gamestop and trade-in / buy games.

 

[Hemingwayoffbase]

One word… Blockbuster

 

[Loomy]

Because I am not a kid anymore and I value my money and time a lot more.

 

[Baki]

You can choose what to rent and you know how long you have it for.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

False equivalence. The thread.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I still love game rentals and I love game pass. 99% of games aren’t worth playing more than once. I buy physical Nintendo games so the family can share games between all our switch’s.

 

[Faust]

When you are a kid everything was an adventure, you loved every second and you had all the time in the world.

You pestered your dad to take you to Blockbuster on friday after eagerly waiting all week.

You finally pull up in your dad's car and see that familiar blue and yellow ticket logo at the front of the store, you jump out and rush in, making a bee line for the wall of videogames for rent. You stand in front of all these game covers you most likely know nothing about, they all promise adventures and worlds you know nothing about.

You stand in front of this big catalogue for what seems like hours, you end up settling for a couple games, one single player for your Playstation system probably a RPG that you definitely will get stuck in and won't beat and one of your favorite multiplayer game to play with your friends and siblings. Sometimes it's Mario Kart, other times it's Smash bros or Goldeneye on the N64.

Your dad picks up a some movies for the family for the family and perhaps you might convince him to rent your favorite movie: Space Jam! one more time, alongside some popcorn and candies.

You get home and proceed to play the living hell out of those games all weekend, attempting to beat them inside the time limit.

It's sunday night now, you watch Space Jam with the family, you have some of that popcorn and candy. You are happy, life's good. The best part? You'll get to do it all over again next weekend! You go to bed happy.


You wake up, it's now 2024, your body is fully grown, you're an adult. You have a responsibilities, a SO, a family, perhaps just a pet or you live alone. Regardless, you go to work and other social activities in your schedule. You're tired.

Blockbuster has gone out of business long ago. Your friends and no longer come around your house to play multiplayer games, you don't live with your siblings anymore. Most games don't even have local coop nowadays.

You have money and access to thousands of games, they are one click of a button away in your digital rental service, you no longer switch cartridges or discs. Everything is available and in the palm of your hands, you get ready to find something to play for the night; you see all these game titles and catchy artwork.

Eventually you find something that looks interesting enough, but first you have to check reviews and read forums to see if the game is going to be worth your time, god forbid you play a low rated game, no sir. After 30 minutes of research you reach the conclusion that this particular game isn't worth your time. "Alright! I'll just find another one!" You say to no one in particular.

Its now 11PM. You wake up disoriented in your couch, "oh well, guess I was too tired huh? I'll just play tomorrow" you think to yourself. "Tomorrow will be the day, for sure".

For a second you smell something a familiar, a scent of popcorn and candy but it's just a trick of your mind. You are hungry so you prepare a microwave burrito. Dinner is served.

You take your Burrito to the couch so you can eat while watching something, feeling a little nostalgic you put on the new Space Jam movie that came out a little while ago. You devour your burrito and finish the movie.


You are tired, you go to bed. Space Jam 2 sucked.


You wake up, it is still 2024.

You go to work.

I prefer the option of:

You wake up, it's now 2024, your body is fully grown, you're an adult. You have responsibilities, a house, a wife, possibly kids or pets. You have work in a few hours, so you get a quick jog/bike in the morning, enjoy time with the family before you go to your workplace in a career you worked to get and enjoy.

Blockbuster has gone out of business long ago, but you kept that feeling in your game room, making it look like a classic rental store of your favorites. Tonight is the weekly/biweekly Warhammer night with the boys so they come over, y'all chat about life, play a couple games, and get in an argument over who is the better fighter. So you load up some Street Fighter VI and get to playing.

The friends say goodbye for the night and so you take a look around your room after picking up. With your career, you have the money to buy any game you wanted so you load up that brand new copy of Armored Core 6 that you eagerly waited for.

Time passes. You look up from the couch and notice its 11PM, your sluggishness from earlier finally hits you after you realize you were so absorbed in the game, it felt like you were 10 again playing the original on PS1. You feel a bit peckish so you walk to the kitchen and get a bowl of your favorite cereal as a kid. Tastes just as sweet as it did then, and you don't have to deal with any nagging parents.

You sit in front of the TV, load up the latest Godzilla movie.

You are tired, you go to bed. Best Godzilla yet.

You wake up, ready to start the day again. Jog, work, come home and play some more games. It's 2024 and it feels good.

~~~~~

There are a lot of things that I loved as a child that are still just as good today or even *better* than they were.

As for the OP topic: The main reason why I loved Rentals and why I don't care for subs, it was due to the experience. Going to a rental store, browsing the shelves, chatting up the cute girl behind the counter or deciding what game you wanted to try or film you wanted to watch was always a fun event.

That doesn't really exist with subs. If I walked into a rental store, I could just walk out if there was nothing that caught my eye. I can't say the same for a sub. If there is nothing that interests me, I still get billed for that month. I can't just get a refund for whatever I didn't use or play.

Subs are a great choice for those interested and I am always happy that there are more options out there. It just isn't for me.

 

[nikos]

because subscription services lead to lower quality games

You must not remember the amount of shitty games early consoles had.

 

[Fess]

I think the main difference for the ire of subscriptions is a psychological one. A one-time payment over a continuous one.

Yes but if you’re the type of person who do one playthrough and then put the game away it’ll be cheaper with a subscription. $70 for 1-2 weeks of gameplay feels bad. Even worse if you sometimes drop games before finishing them.

I’m doing both. It’s extremely rare for me to do more than one playthrough and I never stay on games I don’t fully enjoy, never force myself over the finish line.

So for me subscription libraries is perfect.
Makes me get to try lots of games and can make up my own mind instead of blindly trusting reviews. And in some cases when I truly love something and know I’ll play it a lot I can buy them on Steam knowing it’s a great game or buy on the original store for a discount.

 

[Kamina]

Game Rental were not recurring payments through. You pay per rent. With subscriptions you pay regularly and every month.
It’s similar as you dont own the game in both scenarios.
Some people just want to own things.

 

[FeralEcho]

I've never rented a game in my life,nor do I sell the shit I buy...

And yes subs and all digital are the cancer of gaming,you guys will understand when there's no more physical and companies can delist whatever the fuck they want because why not? It's not like they care about you the consumer!

 

[Lord Malachite]

Because when you were a kid, renting a game was something special--something you got as a treat from a parent or grandparent, or something you spent your hard-earned allowance money or other money-making adventure on. Your life was filled with the rigors of school and chores day in and day out and you had a very finite selection of games in your home that you owned, lones you'd played to death and were sick of.

How many kids could afford to go out and buy new games for $50? Or even older ones for $20?

But then you'd go to your local video store and they'd have game rentals, and many would have a nice selection, and you could spend the little money you had or beg a parent to let you get a game for the weekend and stay out of their hair. There was a magic to it. Many of these games you'd not played, or only played at a friends house, or seen in a magazine like Nintendo Power. You didn't always know what you were going to discover. It might be something amazing you'd never known about, or a series you were dying to get into, or something truly mediocre or even bad that you made the best of because that's what you got.

Many of these rituals were applied to the renting of movies as well. It's an ingrained part of our culture that existed for around 35 - 40 years before fading away.

Market conditions also changed. When Gamestop reared up and began allowing you to trade in your games, this become a good deal for many people. While obviously Gamestop followed the age-old philosophy of "buy low, sell high", it was still a great convenience to take a title that was a few months to a year old that you were completely done with and trade it in towards a hot new game. In the earlier days of game trades, Gamestop would often offer competitive trade in values. I remember back when Kingdom Hearts II was released, the manager of my local store was giving away $35 for trading a CIB copy in. Considering the game retailed new for $50, that was a pretty amazing deal. You could effectively have played through the entire game for only $15. Sadly, those days are long gone. But the point of this story is, game rentals began to be seen as a waste of money, because you could buy a game at full price, beat it in a month, trade it in,, and get money back towards the purchase of another game. If you rented a game, that money was just gone, and you'd have paid much more in the rental fee than the net cost to buy the game after trade in. The value in game rentals went away. And so did the market. I don't know of any way to rent a game other than Gamefly nowadays. And that still comes with the hassle of waiting on your disc to arrive and then mailing it back to get a new one. On PS+ Extra/Premium or Gamepass, you can just download your game and go to it without having to leave the house or wait on a disc to come in the mail.

As for why game subs can be frowned upon, it's because you're paying fee to access a bunch of games that you never own. A bit psychological part of that is the right of first sale. If I own a game on disc, I can sell it privately, loan it out, trade it to a friend, sell it to Gamestop for pennies on the dollar, use it as a coaster, let it collect dust on my shelf. But it's always there for me to do with what I wish, and I can go back and play it 30 years from now if I have the matching or compatible hardware (possibly without patches or DLC if the console's store has been shut down and won't allow me to download content) but I still have it. Subsciptions champion the temporary nature of modern games. The platform holder can rotate a game out at any time and you lose access to it completely unless you'd bought it outright. It leaves many people with a bad taste in their mouth. But many others don't mind and view games as disposable. You play them and forget them moving on to the next. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[CGNoire]

because subscription services lead to lower quality games

...and where done here.

 

[MasterCornholio]

I wouldn't say hate. It's just that buying games is the more popular option. Subs and rentals have their place but they can't replace digital/physical copies for multiple reasons. The big one is that not everything can come to a sub service.

 

[Boss Mog]

When I rented I could rent whatever game I wanted including the newest releases from any publisher but on subs I'm limited to whatever they decide to put on the service and even if I don't play anything that month I still need to pay for the sub.

Also, I grew up and can afford to buy the games I want and realized the value of actual ownership versus the illusion of ownership offered by digital versions of games.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

When you are a kid everything was an adventure, you loved every second and you had all the time in the world.

You pestered your dad to take you to Blockbuster on friday after eagerly waiting all week.

You finally pull up in your dad's car and see that familiar blue and yellow ticket logo at the front of the store, you jump out and rush in, making a bee line for the wall of videogames for rent. You stand in front of all these game covers you most likely know nothing about, they all promise new adventures and worlds.

You stand in front of this big catalogue for what seems like hours, you end up settling for a couple games, one single player for your Playstation system probably a RPG that you definitely will get stuck in and won't beat and one of your favorite multiplayer game to play with your friends and siblings. Sometimes it's Mario Kart, other times it's Smash bros or Goldeneye on the N64.

Your dad picks up some movies for the family and perhaps you might convince him to rent your favorite movie: Space Jam! one more time, alongside some popcorn and candies.

You get home and proceed to play the living hell out of those games all weekend, attempting to beat them inside the time limit.

It's sunday night now, you watch Space Jam with the family, you have some of that popcorn and candy. You are happy, life's good. The best part? You'll get to do it all over again next weekend! You go to bed happy.


You wake up, it's now 2024, your body is fully grown, you're an adult. You have a responsibilities, a SO, a family, perhaps just a pet or you live alone. Regardless, you go to work and other social activities in your schedule. You're tired.

Blockbuster has gone out of business long ago. Your friends no longer come around your house to play multiplayer games, you don't live with your siblings anymore. Most games don't even have local coop nowadays.

You have money and access to thousands of games, they are one click of a button away in your digital rental service, you no longer switch cartridges or discs. Everything is available and in the palm of your hands, you get ready to find something to play for the night; you see all these game titles and catchy artwork.

Eventually you find something that looks interesting enough, but first you have to check reviews and read forums to see if the game is going to be worth your time, god forbid you play a low rated game, no sir. After 30 minutes of research you reach the conclusion that this particular game isn't worth your time. "Alright! I'll just find another one!" You say to no one in particular.

Its now 11PM. You wake up disoriented in your couch, "oh well, guess I was too tired huh? I'll just play tomorrow" you think to yourself. "Tomorrow will be the day, for sure".

For a second you smell something a familiar, a scent of popcorn and candy but it's just a trick of your mind. You are hungry so you prepare a microwave burrito. Dinner is served.

You take your Burrito to the couch so you can eat while watching something, feeling a little nostalgic you put on the new Space Jam movie that came out a little while ago. You devour your burrito and finish the movie.


You are tired, you go to bed. Space Jam 2 sucked.


You wake up, it is still 2024.

You go to work.

 

[rofif]

because subscription services lead to lower quality games

This and there is no denying that.
Old good games that are in subs don’t count and games sponsored by m$ money does not count either

 

[Puscifer]

To me it's because like a lot of things the value proposition of these services is skewed. Not trying to be a dick but why try to convince me or others to rent from a service like Game pass or PlayStation Ultimate, they're both services that throw heaps of older and mid titles onto the platform to try and convince you it's a good idea.

I would rather gamefly because at least I'm renting the games I know I WANT to play vs games I might download, play for a few hours and move on.

 

[ahtlas7]

I didn’t though. Much, much prefer to own and keep my games then and now. Anyway, rentals were more like a $3 short term, full game demo.

 

[KungFucius]

because subscription services lead to lower quality games

Such a bullshit concept with no basis in reality. I am really liking the less expensive, sometimes experimental games on services more than the AAA ones. If it leads to more of that and less bloated unfun shit that takes the better part of a decade to make, like Starfield, then let Gamepass kill AAA games like that in favor of the Hi Fi Rush and Pentiments.

 

[Regginator]

I actually love(d) game subscription. PS+ Extra was (at least until the recent price hikes) one of the best values I ever gotten. I got to try out tons games I usually wouldn't have bought, some of which I ended up loving. So in a way it allowed me to broaden my horizon, and experience games I normally wouldn't.

What I dislike though, or you could safely say downright hate, is the trend since the PS4-era to charge for online play. Fuck that shit. Paying €60 (now even €72) just to be able to play online is a fucking scam. I don't give a shit about those three games a month you get, most of the times I'm not interested in them anyway. Online should be free.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Because we didn't have the internet when we were kids.