A couple of nights ago, my brain ended up having a random though about reviving rental video-games and wanted some feedback on the Idea.
DIGITAL VIDEO GAME RENTING: A.K.A. If valve were a little more honest.
The Idea came to me in a dream, Instead of paying full price for a game, there can be a sort of "monthly" system where you pay 60$ a month for a selection of games. Initially I wanted to go the "spotify" route but then realized how messy that might get (install sizes, profit distribution, etc.) So I opted for a more "compact" system where in you get a "unit" for every dollar you pay for a month.
The Idea is this: take a game's price and divide it by 5, that's how many unit's it will "cost" the customer per month. Every first week of the month, you get to pick what to remove and add. developers who have games installed through this system get a cut on every install. (so theoreticaly, indies cost 1 to 6 units, AAA will cost 8 to 16 units and more if DLC is to be accounted)
Example: I pay 30$ to this theoretical service, so I get 30 units every month that I have to fill, I pick a AAA game (16 units), 2 DLC packs of said game (6 units), and 2 Indie games (8 units), next month I can decide to keep supporting the indie games and chance the AAA game and the DLC packs to another AAA release or vice versa. paying more means I can get more games at the same time.
For the consumer, this gives options and makes more expensive games palatable and developers can get a steadier income with more people getting their games.
Why I think this can be pro-consumer
Less incentive to pre-order or wait for a sale
fooling your customers for pre orders and day one dlc is less effective when customers can easily drop your game after a month, cutting your profits by roughly a fifth of the potential gain. Also punishes bad games fast (at least within a month). also, a lot easier to convince someone to pay 1/5th the cost.
Encourages better games for lower price
Taking up 16 units is not a great proposition especially with better alternatives in the market.
Multiple DLCs and expansion packs are not encouraged
A consumer would be less likely to fill their entire month's quota with just one game, why take just one game when I can take 5 new ones that don't have tons of DLC stacked on them.
Things that can be added to make it more pro-consumer
Keep the option to buy the games whole, deduct cost from how long you have rented. (so basically you bought the game if you've had it installed for 5 months.)
Any game you buy is simply given as an installer ala GOG or something to that extent. Basically, you no longer rent it and thus, does not cost units.
Make that aforementioned first week of the month a "testing period"
think of it like a clothes shop where you go to the dressing room to try the product on, except a week, and you lock your selection afterwards. Constrains may have to be placed such as a 20 min demo only to ensure that the player does not go about finishing the game and swapping for a new one, cheating the developers.
Why I think this is attractive to developers
Larger pickup rate to compensate for the loss.
Paying 12 bucks for a game is a lot more palatable when the original is 60. If the content can last to 5 months, then they can theoretically get more than they expect. (but then they have to make sure that the game is supported for that 5 months)
Indies have a better chance.
With a smaller unit cost that can got to one, I would guess that people would be more inclined to rent it.
Things that can be added to make it more attractive to developers
"surprise me" option for consumers
if a customer does not know what to pick, an option can be there to fill the remaining units with games that suit their taste but they may not have heard of before, possibly bringing obscure people into the light. (may have to be fine tuned)
So there, that's an Idea dump
P.S. I am not saying this Idea is superior in anyway shape or form, feel free to criticize it and even suggest improvements, adjustments or whole other alternatives but please leave let's be civil.
TL;DR: Though experiment about how to revive video game rentals and make it not consumer-unfriendly and also a solution to people scared of shit games, also please be civil.
