Why did renting games become less popular in the modern era?

General and Gaming > Classic Video Games

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burningdoom:
I don't need to look it up. I'm talking from experience. I own 1000s of VHS that I still watch regularly. Collect movies of all formats. And my dad always collected them, too. Always been around the VHS, and a lot of it. In fact, a lot of my collection now was his collection, I got those when he passed away.

What exactly do I need to look up? That you need to put a head-cleaner in your VCR if it's eating tapes? Absolutely common knowledge for anyone familiar with VHS.

What exactly makes you believe that it has a shorter shelf life? Plastic takes forever to degrade. And the plastic shell is there to protect the film inside.

Let me clear here, I'm not arguing that VHS is a better format that DVD or Blu-Ray. Obviously VHS has the lowest picture quality (except for maybe video-CD). Just about the reliability comment. They're solidly built and will last you your entire lifetime as long as it's not exposed to moisture, extreme temperatures, or magnets. And the data can't be chipped or scratched away as long as you aren't opening up your tapes and getting violent with them.

Honestly, these formats really haven't been around to get solid data. As of now, the first VHS, CD, or DVD made should all still run and play just fine as long as it's kept properly. I have VCD Discs (older than VHS), that still run and play just fine. I have records and 8-tracks that still play fine. And most of us have Atari carts that run a-okay. I don't think it's a problem we're really gonna run into in our lifetimes, with the way people like us keep our collections in good shape.

sworddude:

--- Quote from: burningdoom on April 25, 2018, 06:24:46 pm ---I don't need to look it up. I'm talking from experience. I own 1000s of VHS that I still watch regularly. Collect movies of all formats. And my dad always collected them, too. Always been around the VHS, and a lot of it. In fact, a lot of my collection now was his collection, I got those when he passed away.

What exactly do I need to look up? That you need to put a head-cleaner in your VCR if it's eating tapes? Absolutely common knowledge for anyone familiar with VHS.

What exactly makes you believe that it has a shorter shelf life? Plastic takes forever to degrade. And the plastic shell is there to protect the film inside.

Let me clear here, I'm not arguing that VHS is a better format that DVD or Blu-Ray. Obviously VHS has the lowest picture quality (except for maybe video-CD). Just about the reliability comment. They're solidly built and will last you your entire lifetime as long as it's not exposed to moisture, extreme temperatures, or magnets. And the data can't be chipped or scratched away as long as you aren't opening up your tapes and getting violent with them.

Honestly, these formats really haven't been around to get solid data. As of now, the first VHS, CD, or DVD made should all still run and play just fine as long as it's kept properly. I have VCD Discs (older than VHS), that still run and play just fine. I have records and 8-tracks that still play fine. And most of us have Atari carts that run a-okay. I don't think it's a problem we're really gonna run into in our lifetimes, with the way people like us keep our collections in good shape.

--- End quote ---

Cd's have a higher shelf life compared to vhs only thing I'm saying as far as expectations go between the two formats.

But you are correct there is no solid data as of yet since otherwise allot more discs or vhs tapes should have been unusable wich has not been the case yet when where talking about the properly kept ones.

marvelvscapcom2:

--- Quote from: turf on April 25, 2018, 10:10:10 am ---I think it's a little bit of a lot of things. Y'all have nailed it.

Games got cheaper to own.
Games were longer. It wasn't as fun to just play for a weekend.
Discs weren't as durable. Cartridges were tanks!

It just became less and less profitable for business to rent games.

--- End quote ---

Thanks for sharing everyone :). The discussion has been very informative and fun :D.

I'm not so sure I agree with some of the explenations though. Because like others have said blockbuster was still extremely lucrative with Disc based media in movie format and during the PS1 era. It was only at around 2005 where they dropped rapidly and only until about PS3/360 era when they fully died.

And the games got cheaper to own argument is something I don't get much.

37.99 for a new game back than, some were 40 or a little more, but with inflation from the early 90s it equals about what we pay today.

Based on my inflation calculator, 40 in 1994 translates into 68.28. So games might have gotten slightly cheaper but let's also remember how much those games costed to make. Carts were more money to produce.

Playstation was 299.99 at launch, translated to 2018 is about 510 which about the going rate of a One X or PS4 pro. So I think they are on par with the inflation of pricing with the time :).

sworddude:

More like 50 - 70 $ before tax except for some compilations of older games that's like 100$ each game

The console was more expensive on release so this is already a bit later considering that street fighter alpha 2 is one of the last snes releases

And while inflation is a thing this was allot of money back than

Chrono trigger was 80 brand new and phantasy star 4 for the sega genesis a whopping 100$ proabably without taxes :o would be like 170 ish for phantasy star 4 excluding taxes.

Don't forget that very few titles hold that 50 60$ mark most drop in value by quite allot in just a couple of months if not weeks if were talking about ps4 etc

People had less money to spend and games were more pricy, no fast major price drops etc. Allot of titles don't even release for the original high retail prices anymore.

your ad has older games wich already sold allot of copies so naturally price get lower a bit as years go by. However it doesn't happen in just a few weeks like current gen games

emporerdragon:

--- Quote ---And while inflation is a thing this was allot of money back than
--- End quote ---

Inflation shows why it was a lot of money back then. $60 in the early to mid 90's had the same purchasing power as $100-110 does today.
Games got cheaper and cheaper to buy with almost every generation, with the only exception being when people jumped from Xbox/PS2 to 360/PS3, as the sticker price rose from an average of $50 to $60.

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