If you thought that Redbox kiosks were only good for snagging a movie to watch on the way home from a long day at work, get ready to think again. The famous red disc-dispensing kiosks will start spitting out video games starting on June 17th, offering titles for the PlayStation3, Xbox 360, andNintendo Wii for $2 per day.
The new game rentals have been in testing at about 5,000 locations around the country for some time now, but Redbox says they’re finally ready to expand the program to their other 21,000 kiosks. According to the press release, video games will be introduced at the same time as Blu-Ray discs at Redbox locations nationwide. “Redbox will make discovering the latest games as easy as a trip to the local grocery, convenience, or drug store,” according to Redbox’s VP of Games, Joel Resnik.
It’s difficult for Redbox’s move not to be seen as a shot across the bow of companies that also rent games, like GameFly and Blockbuster (the latter now owned by Dish Network.) Blockbuster is the only competitor that has a local kiosk presence to compete with Redbox, while GameFly’s business model relies entirely on disc-by-mail.
It’s also clear that Redbox isn’t about to take the threat from a newly purchased Blockbuster lightly, and is looking for ways to differentiate itself from other services like Blockbuster and Netflix. Next month, it’ll be as easy as walking up to the kiosk outside your local convenience store to pick up a game you’ve wanted to try but didn’t want to buy. At $2/day, it won’t even hurt so much if the only way you can return it is to wait until your local grocery store is open the next day so you get access to the kiosk to drop off your disc.
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