Posted in Technology

I always like competition in the market place

As the recent post on Armchairempire.com reminds us, it seems the tests that started back in 2009, were very successful, and Redbox will be bringing game rentals for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii starting in June. The pricing will be $2 a day, and should be the same as the movie business as far as returns go. According to President Mitch Lowe, he stated “Redbox has rented more than 1 million video games in less than two years at these locations, underscoring the popularity of video game play in America,”. Now this will put them in the market along with GameFly, who does mail rental for video games, much like Netflix does for movies. It seems kind of weird, since you can rent from Gamefly for $16 a month (one-at-a-time) for as many games as you can play in a month. But with the initial tests that Redbox did, it seems people either don’t know the Gamefly name very well, or just don’t care. I guess though, it’s just another venue for games to get out.
There was an interview by IndustryGames that co-founder of Gamefly Sean Spector said that they really aren’t worried about the competition and said “Look at Netflix and Redbox for movies.” So he seems to think they can co-exist just fine. We shall see. I’m just waiting for Spot to try and capsize Redbox with their 89 cent combo and $1 across the board for movies.

via [CNET]

Posted in Technology

Spot the Redbox Competitor

So apparently the new company Spot. The Difference is the new competitor to Redbox. These guys are based out of California and look to bring a pricing war to the movie rental kiosk model. The pricing sets each movie rental at $1 per movie, this includes blu-rays! So they have beat out Redbox there, but they aren’t done yet, it seems, that if you rent more, you “save” more. Now I know technically, you don’t save more, by spending more, but the marketing is there. The idea is, if you rent two movies or more, they are only $0.89! So now this “saves” you $0.11 per movie if you rent more than one at a time. This is all based upon a 24 hour rental, so I don’t know if the timing thing, like with Redbox it is 9pm the next night. The only problem I see is, LOCATION. This is only in California at the moment and only in Riverside County. BOO! The other thing I like about these kiosks is the two slot machine. They have a slot for express returns, so that while someone else is taking forever to make a selection, or just staring blankly at the screen, you can just scoot past them to return your disc. I love it! I hope these guys can expand to Eastern half of the US! I might even check into investing!

via [Engadget] via [HomeMediaMagazine] Source [Spot]