In an interesting twist, it appears Direct2Drive has created a system where you can now rent a selection of PC games through their service. The cost for this service is $5 for 5 hours of play. Obviously, there are still some hurdles to overcome for them, such as regional restrictions, but it is interesting to see them pushing things forward a little.

I am curious what others think. Would you test a game for $5? Or test it twice for $10 with the possibility of completing it? I believe it is a step in the right direction, but I cannot see myself making full use of it due to cost. I believe they will have a tough time, as many people will simply wait for the game to go on sale for $5 during the holidays (or a similar price point).

I wonder if other services will try to match this as well. Steam already does free weekends, so it would not be difficult for them to extend that to a rental service of sorts. Somehow, I doubt they will do this though, as they have a big enough fanbase to not bother with such features. There is no specific rental page to link to directly that I can find, but three games are listed on their main page. Divinity 2, Grid, and Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Hmm, make it flat rate, all you can eat, like Netflix and then we'll talk. I can get more than 5 hours of gameplay for my gaming dollar elsewhere (as in, a full title in some cases). Now I guess if this included 5 hours of the latest AAA title it might make more sense... wait, no it doesn't, did Blockbuster even charge that much for a day?

$1/hr is ridiculously overpriced for a rental service. Most games I play I end up spending anywhere from 30-80 hours on, and yet I'm often able to buy those games for $20 or less. When your rental price is effectively higher than the purchase price there's something very, very wrong.

$5 for 5 hour? No thanks, I'll just wait for Steam summer sale.

Personally, I just wish publishers would bring demos back, then there would not even be a real need for a rental market. I imagine those would turn into more actual purchases than the rental model.

More or less, I guess I find it interesting to see a service actually trying to do something different. Just wish it was more reasonable, and actually let you pick from more than a predetermined selection.

I tend to evaluate my money's worth from a game, in terms of hours played, by equating 1 hour to 1 dollar. So I have no problem with the price. Would I try it out if it were available here? Sure would, especially given the recent lack of demos for games. So I support this move of theirs, even if I will always be excluded from it thanks to the wonderful cartel of Japanese game publishers who have seen to it that any form of video game rental is illegal here.

(Which is downright stupid. You can rent comics, you can rent movies, you can rent music, but video games? Oh no. Can't have that!)

Kind of like OnLive, right? Not a bad idea...

Noticed this a few days ago, though I'm a little puzzled at why there's so few games to start with. I've been wanting a rental feature from digital download sites for awhile. Most of the games I buy are long, engaging titles that I wouldn't want to rent.

However, I often pass up games, usually action-oriented or FPS titles, that are basically over in 6-10 hours. They're usually decently entertaining while they last, but not worth full price...or even half price. I'm also tempted to say that rental would be a good way to try out games I'm not sure I want to purchase or not...but doing that would feel like I'm paying for a demo, which is ridiculous.

As for the pricing...I have mixed feelings. 5 hours isn't really enough to be beat a title unless you rush through it, so I'm realistically thinking 10 bucks if I want to finish the game. That doesn't seem too unreasonable to me, but I'd much prefer paying for like a 3 or 5 day rental. Having a limit measured in hours, not days, would feel a little too pressured if I'm closing in on the time I have left and I feel I have to rush to finish the game to save 5 more dollars.

If D2D greatly expands the number of games that can be rented, I'd definitely give it a try.

I have to agree with DarrkPhoenix. I tend to buy my games (especially from D2D) on sale. As well, I'm generally a slow player, so $1 per hour is waaaayyyyyy overpriced for me.

I would maybe rent a brand new game for $5 for 5 hours if I was really, really divided on whether I wanted to buy it. It would be rare though, since I pretty much buy any decent game from my main genres.

really expensive... here in germany we a couple of services offering a monthly flatrate for about 10 to 15 Euro / Month.

Offering nearly all new games (and a lot of old) and you can play them as long and as often as you like (as long your subscription does not run out).

1 buck = 1 hour?

way to expensive

1 buck should give you minimum 3 hours for new title and 5-10 hours for old title

It's worth pointing out that Netflix is not universally accepted by movie and television companies, there is a lot of controversy there over whether it cheapens the value of old movies and shows or whether it finds new revenue outlets. Check out this story from The Hollywood Reporter on the subject.

I think a service like what Onlive is trying, where you have access to hundreds of games for $10 a month or whatever, could be great for some companies but maybe cheapen the worth of classics for other companies. Rentals in general are a slippery slope really... I would much prefer a greater effort being put toward demos, streaming or downloaded, rather than rentals.

I view games as a product, not as a service. Thank you, but no thank you. Renting is something that I don't do for any kind of stuff.

Then again you could complete many modern titles in those 5 hrs...