Published:
05-Jun-09
US kiosk operator E-Play will pilot a new vending machine at 77 Wal-Mart locations in the US Northeast that allows customers to rent, sell and trade pre-owned games and DVD and Blu-ray Discs (BD). Pre-owned discs can be exchanged for credit on consumer's credit cards, to a maximum value of $25 for popular games titles and a minimum of $0.50 for older film or games titles. Rental charges are $1 for overnight rental of DVDs or games while BDs cost $2. It is understood that in stores that already contain video rental kiosks through Wal-Mart's partnership with operator Redbox, the DVD rental option in the E-Play pilot programme will be turned off.
Meanwhile, US kiosk market leader Redbox is to trial games rentals in the summer of 2009, both by adding games to its existing machines and by launching new kiosks that will exclusively offer games rental.
Our take...
Considering the remarkable success being experienced by video rental kiosks in North America it does not come as a surprise that kiosk operators are keen to expand into the games sector. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the E-play model, however, is the addition of trading. Pre-owned games trading is an increasingly important revenue stream for retailers, with online retailer Amazon adding a games trading facility on its US website in April 2009. For consumers, the fact that popular games tend to remain at a premium price point for longer than new release video titles also serves to make the trading model attractive.
The only potential downside to automatic trading of discs via kiosks may be that system could be misused to dispose of stolen discs, since there is no human contact, although the need for a credit card may mitigate against this.
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