There is a specific kind of pain that every modern gamer knows all too well. It’s that sinking feeling you get when you drop seventy dollars on a brand-new release, play it for exactly two hours, and realize you absolutely hate it. I’ve been there more times than I care to admit. The hype cycle is relentless, constantly pushing us to pre-order and buy into the “next big thing” before we’ve even seen a proper review. It’s exhausting. And expensive. A few years ago, I realized I was spending hundreds of dollars a month on games that were just gathering digital dust in my library. I needed a way to pump the brakes without giving up on my hobby entirely. That’s when I started looking backward at the rental model, something I thought had died out with the local video store. It turns out, the concept isn’t dead; it just moved online. It feels almost rebellious now to refuse to pay full price, but frankly, my bank account is happier for it.
The logistics of it are surprisingly refreshing, even if waiting for snail mail feels a bit old-school in our instant-gratification world. There is something genuinely exciting about opening the mailbox and finding a game disc instead of just bills and junk mail. It forces you to slow down and appreciate the game you have in front of you. Recently, I decided to jump back in and test the waters. By utilizing a Gamefly free trial, I managed to play through three different titles that I was on the fence about. I ended up loving one and sending the other two back. If I had bought those digitally, I would have been out over a hundred bucks for games I didn’t even like. That trial period essentially acts as a safety net. It gives you the freedom to experiment with genres you wouldn’t normally touch, simply because there is zero financial risk attached to the decision. It’s a loophole in a system designed to take your money.
Of course, this method isn’t for everyone. If you are purely a PC gamer or someone who needs to play a game the exact second it launches at midnight, the physical rental delay might drive you crazy. It takes patience. But for the rest of us, specifically console players who are tired of the exorbitant entry fees for modern gaming, it makes perfect sense. I view it as a filter. I use the service to churn through the single-player campaigns that I know I’ll only play once, and I save my actual purchasing budget for the massive multiplayer games that I know I’ll be playing for years. It’s about being smarter with how we consume media. We don’t have to own everything. Sometimes, just passing through a world is enough, and having a service that facilitates that temporary visit is exactly what a lot of us need to clear our backlogs without going broke.
