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Blockbuster not carrying 360 games...

D

DrGAKMAN

Banned
...got the e-mail the other day, surprized no other Blockbuster employee's have mentioned it yet. But head offices are saying (for now) the only Blockbuster stores that will be carrying X-BOX 360 games are the Blockbuster GAMERUSH game specific stores. Of which, in my area (and many other areas), there are none. I couldn't believe it when I heard it...Blockbuster just seems to be going even more down the hill. I thought for sure our district would get them as we got PSP (no NDS though...and we got the PSP games like a month after it's launch). I thought Blockbuster had a good relationship with MS and all that, theyre just missing a golden oppurtunity as launches are usually pretty big for game rentals. I imagine we'll get them later (as we did PSP), but then again our Mainstream, USA (Dayton, Ohio) stores didn't get NDS games for rent. Blockbuster is just HANDING that money to GameFly at this point!

In related news...I remember the month heading up to the original X-BOX launch...there were all kind of ad campaigns...I've yet to see one X-BOX 360 commersial!
 
hmm, i hope hollywood video will carry them....i was planning to rent a few games with some free rental coupons over the break
 
My area's blockbusters don't have GameRushes, either. One of them is moving from its current location, to another place, which will suck.
 
If not, I'd say go with GameFly, but I'm pretty sure Hollywood will get them...they got DreamCast a month before launch and their GAMEZONE stores are really nice & pretty much put Blockbuster's GAMERUSH stores to shame!
 
Hmm, they seemed to remodel quite a few of the Blockbusters around me to GameRush's. Still, I can imagine them having a tough time staying in business now that they got rid of their money-maker late charges. A portion of their people who rent a lot moved to online (which they are trying to make their way into) and a lot of the rest probably go to local places that are a lot cheaper. Around here you can rent movies at local places for $1 or $2 a lot of times.. sometimes it's only a day rental or two on new stuff, but really most of the time I plan on watching the movie the night I get it.

It makes sense to move to games.. I'm surprised more Blockbusters aren't Gamerush's. We only have a handful of Hollywood Video's around here. There isn't one even remotely near me.
 
Blockbuster will be lucky to be carrying movies soon the way they're going. :lol Universal releases are already gone...
 
Teddman said:
Blockbuster will be lucky to be carrying movies soon the way they're going. :lol Universal releases are already gone...
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What? BB doesn't rent out Universal releases anymore?
 
Some people are going to be in for a shock when they expect to rent all the 360 games via Gamefly and then can't because everybody and their mom had the same idea.
 
GDJustin said:
The last system BB didn't support at launch?

The Dreamcast.

X360 am fuck total?
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That + no hype commersials + $60 games (which is the probable reason Blockbuster isn't carrying them) = maybe so.

But, then you see that every other rental business will rent them so it's probably more like: "Blockbuster am fuck total". I've spent my last 5 & 1/2 years at this dump and I feel like I've ruined my career options for the future 'cos of being "stuck" there. I really do feel like I'm on a sinking ship with each announcement.

Oh yeah...and if people haven't realized it yet, the stuff about Antiaco/Icann, Blockbuster going under and Universal (and, soon, possibly other major studios) dumping us are pretty much all true.
 
Honestly, that's stupid. They should make their money back easier than any other system with 360. People will flock to them right away. Yeah, the userbase isn't there, but the ammount of PS2 and Xbox games I rented at the beginning compared to now is crazy. I rarely if ever rent a game for a console now. But early in the system's lifetime, I love to seen what's impressive visually, what's going on with every game..
 
If you ask me, it would be more beneficial to Microsoft if rental chains didn't carry 360 games for the first two or three months. If you're dropping $400 for a system, you'd look to rent a game. If you don't have that option than the only thing you can do is buy one. It's obvious the Microsoft is trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of the 360, and by not offering rentals at first, they can be sure of that. Microsoft can make money off rental purchases after the "launch period."

Besides, what's the point of offering rentals if there aren't going to be all that many systems around at first?
 
SuperPac said:
Some people are going to be in for a shock when they expect to rent all the 360 games via Gamefly and then can't because everybody and their mom had the same idea.
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Hell all I really need is Condemned or Kameo. I expect PDZ will be impossible to find.
 
J2 Cool said:
Honestly, that's stupid. They should make their money back easier than any other system with 360. People will flock to them right away. Yeah, the userbase isn't there, but the ammount of PS2 and Xbox games I rented at the beginning compared to now is crazy. I rarely if ever rent a game for a console now. But early in the system's lifetime, I love to seen what's impressive visually, what's going on with every game..
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I'd think early on is the biggest time for renting too. You want to try all of the new graphics/features, et al. Plus, when a new gen. launches games don't go down in price :(

In fact, I think that's the thing I hate the most about Nintendo this gen. A lot of their First party games aren't right up my alley so to speak anymore, but a lot of them look like good fun. However, they take forever to drop to even just $30.. let alone $20 :( I don't like renting much either unless it's something along the lines of Max Payne. Short, good fun.. no need to replay really.
 
Depending on how much of a share Blockbuster still holds, ailing or no, I wonder how much this stands to hurt the Xbox 360; I honestly don't see how the Xbox 360 will take this without even flinching if Blockbuster still has the brand recognition it has. (Like others said, add to that the $60 third party price point, high accessory prices and apparent lack of US launch campaign and do we equal a problem here?)
 
How can you say X360 has no "commersials" ? I have seen a fucking every10minutes X360 giveaway commercial 300 times a day for the past month.
 
That was like today when I went in Blockbuster to rent Land of the Dead. "Sorry, we are not carrying that movie". WTF is this about? You're selling it, but not renting it, I see. Same with Team America.. but only with the unrated version of that one. Is it something to do with unrated DVDs?
 
SuperPac said:
Some people are going to be in for a shock when they expect to rent all the 360 games via Gamefly and then can't because everybody and their mom had the same idea.
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No kidding. I signed up for gamefly this month, but outside of a few Gamecube games I'm only interested in 360 games. Hopefully I don't end up wasting my money.
 
Eel O'Brian said:
They're carrying it for rental online.
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Hmm.. interesting. It could be my local Blockbuster.. I haven't been in this area (Middletown, PA) long enough to know how this place is.. this isn't a good sign. :lol
 
Az987 said:
How can you say X360 has no "commersials" ? I have seen a fucking every10minutes X360 giveaway commercial 300 times a day for the past month.
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That may be true, but it should not substitute for a genuine launch campaign. Every10minutes promos, which are all but over now, were marketed by Pepsi, so that's arguably the most identifiable brand. That was selling the Dew as much as it was the 360. Microsoft needs to pull its own weight now that the contest is over, and print ads are not the only kind I had in mind.
 
Biglesworth23 said:
Hmm.. interesting. It could be my local Blockbuster.. I haven't been in this area (Middletown, PA) long enough to know how this place is.. this isn't a good sign. :lol
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I've heard others in different areas say their Blockbuster employees/managers told them the same thing. Maybe it's just an issue with the B&M Blockbusters?
 
SanjuroTsubaki said:
I work for BB, we will be carrying 360 games. We also carry good ammount of DS and some PSP games.
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LUCKEEEEEEEEEEE

I realize not all areas/Blockbusters are the same. But as far as this region goes (which again...is Mainstream, USA) it's not looking too good!

WindyMan said:
If you ask me, it would be more beneficial to Microsoft if rental chains didn't carry 360 games for the first two or three months. If you're dropping $400 for a system, you'd look to rent a game. If you don't have that option than the only thing you can do is buy one. It's obvious the Microsoft is trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of the 360, and by not offering rentals at first, they can be sure of that. Microsoft can make money off rental purchases after the "launch period."

Besides, what's the point of offering rentals if there aren't going to be all that many systems around at first?
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In a business sense this is the way Nintendo views Blockbuster (which explains Nintendo's piss-poor representation here). Microsoft (with the first X-BOX anyways) wasn't like that at all...they wanted the X-BOX to be the most appealling system to rent games on, almost seemingly ignoring how that can negativly effect sales of some games. Of all the systems we carry, the most diverse library selection is in the X-BOX section. We get small niche games, we get big popular games...but with PS2 we rarely get the niche games and with GCN we don't get games UNLESS there's a cartoon character on the front. That's what's so shocking to me about this 360 launch...MS seemed to bend over and go out of their way to get their foot in the door with the first one...now...they seem to be resting on their "momentum".

Something else I wanted to ask about 360...I heard something a while back ago about how all the launch games would have demos you could download from X-BOX Live!. This sounds great, if true...and when applied to this Blockbuster news & what WindyMan said it really wouldn't matter much if Blockbuster carried the games at launch or not.
 
SanjuroTsubaki said:
I work for BB, we will be carrying 360 games. We also carry good ammount of DS and some PSP games.
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Huh? DS where? I've seen PSP games and movies, but no GBA or DS ever, not even for sale used.
 
sonarrat said:
Huh? DS where? I've seen PSP games and movies, but no GBA or DS ever, not even for sale used.
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Got Kirby, Nintendogs, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Metroidm, Pheonix Wright, Trace Memory for new ones. Go back till SMDS64, Warioware, Nanostray, etc.
 
Az987 said:
How can you say X360 has no "commersials" ? I have seen a fucking every10minutes X360 giveaway commercial 300 times a day for the past month.
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Do these ads explain what the 360 actually is?
 
truffleshuffle83 said:
10 dollars for a fuckin rental is a joke anyways
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Compared to what? Piracy? Buying at full price on release date and trading it in for $22 two weeks later? Buying at full price only to see the price drop to $30 three months later? Maybe compared to Gamefly.. sort of.
 
truffleshuffle83 said:
10 dollars for a fuckin rental is a joke anyways
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Our rentals are $4.99 for handheld, $6.99 for console. Compare that to $39.99 or $49.99

DVD rentals are $4.99 most movies retail for $15-30.

You sir make no cents....nor dollars.
 
SanjuroTsubaki said:
Our rentals are $4.99 for handheld, $6.99 for console. Compare that to $39.99 or $49.99

DVD rentals are $4.99 most movies retail for $15-30.

You sir make no cents....nor dollars.
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and NO MORE LATE FEES!!! oh wait....
 
DenogginizerOS said:
and NO MORE LATE FEES!!! oh wait....
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Its damn fair. You can keep a movie out for a month and 15 or 12 days and only owe an extra $1.25. But instead most people rather damage the game and ask for a credit 3 months down the road. (True story yesterday. First person to rent Hulk for XBOX and wanted a credit for the game being defective and extra credit for having to come down to the store, rented the game late August.)
 
extra $1.25 does not equal NO MORE LATE FEES!!!!

Blockbuster fucked up with that campaign and have been sliding since.
 
DenogginizerOS said:
extra $1.25 does not equal NO MORE LATE FEES!!!!

Blockbuster fucked up with that campaign and have been sliding since.
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Its a restocking fee, for having to print up a new insert and transfering it back into the store. Still not bad, I don't agree with the new policy myself and thought the old one was fine. But from a customer's point of view I don't see how this should be a big deal unless you are already a douchebag of society.
 
SanjuroTsubaki said:
Its a restocking fee, for having to print up a new insert and transfering it back into the store. Still not bad, I don't agree with the new policy myself and thought the old one was fine. But from a customer's point of view I don't see how this should be a big deal unless you are already a douchebag of society.
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So when you greet people do you say, "Hi! Welcome to Blockbuster, douchebag!" ?
 
DenogginizerOS said:
extra $1.25 does not equal NO MORE LATE FEES!!!!

Blockbuster fucked up with that campaign and have been sliding since.
Click to expand...

NO NO NO NO NO...we've been sliding since WAY before then...
 
Fight for Freeform said:
Do these ads explain what the 360 actually is?
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Yes they do.

"So you didnt win a new xbox 360 ?"

NEW as in NEW! xbox as in video game system. Put the 2 together and what do you get ? NEW XBOX ! YAY!
 
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