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Game rental services

With Eurogamer.net announcing their new game rental service yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to list the other sites out there that also let you rent games online. These are all places that let you select the games you want and they send them to you in order of availability and preference. Depending on the package you choose you can have up to 3 discs at a time with no time limit. Once you return a disc in their pre-paid envelope you get the next available one on your list. I’m rounding up prices because prices that end in .99 and .97 really annoy me:

  • Eurogamer – £10, £15 or £20 per month for 1, 2, or 3 games at a time. PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, GBA, DS and PSP.
  • Sainsbury’s DVD rental – £13, £17 or £20 for 1, 2 or 3 discs. PS2, PSP, DVD and UMD films.

  • Games To Go – £10, £15, £20 for 1, 2 or 3 or £8 for a “Light” option where you’re limited to 1 game at a time and only get 1 a month even if you returned the last one within a week. PS2, Xbox, GameCube, GBA
  • Games Frenzy – £10 and £15 for 1 or 2 games. Xbox, PS2, GameCube, Xbox 360, PSP.
  • LoveFilm – £13, £17 and £20 for 1, 2 or 3 discs. PS2, PSP, DVD and UMD films.
  • CD Wow – £15 for 2 games at a time. PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, GBA, DS and PSP.

You may notice the similarity between Eurogamer and CD Wow. Since they point to SwapGame FAQs where the answer to “What selection of Games do you have?” is identical and games search results are identical, I think SwapGame.com just run slightly different pricing options off the same gaming database and companies pay to slap their name on a section, or probably get referral payments. You should probably just sign up for SwapGame itself (This is not an affiliate program link as I’m too lazy to sign up).

I have never used any of these systems and make no guarantees as to quality. I used to use Mailbox Movies – they were mostly good although you’d get the occasional badly-damaged disc that wouldn’t play coz some idiot had used it as a coaster, but they were always quick to replace those ones when you reported them. Hopefully these guys are the same.