Belgium Outlaws Game Rentals: Is America Next?

Kris Erickson • Oct 31, 2008 • Comments (6)

When we think of Belgium, we usually picture quaint little towns filled with jolly Belgians, munching on chocolate and waffles. If you pictured a jack-booted foot stomping down on the rights of video game lovers, you would also be correct. Today, the diminutive European country passed into law a rule outlawing the rental of video games. The law was first proposed back in June by the Belgian Entertainment Association, a lobby group made up of video game publishers and concerned waffle makers. The law goes into effect on December 1st. The reason behind the legislation (which already exists in neighboring France and other European countries), is that rentals eat away the potential profits of game makers by allowing many people to enjoy the same copy for a lower price.

In America, video game rental is already an established practice. Most major brick-and-mortar rental shops carry a good selection of the newest Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii games, while online companies like Gamefly deliver games right to consumers’ doors like Netflix does with movies. It is unlikely that regulators would be able to put a stop to this (highly profitable) behavior in the U.S., but some game publishers would like them to.

Lost Winds Developer David Braben thinks that we should get rid of the market for used games, and start charging higher prices for rental copies of games to discourage the practice. In an interview with Eurogamer, Braben laid out his bold plan:

[In the UK] they brought out rental copies, and copies not for resale or rental. That distinction is really important in the video market, and all of the chains honor it because they know it's more than their life's worth not to. My argument is that for every game there are two versions. One is personal, not for resale and it's made abundantly clear you can't sell it. And it's made available for something like GBP 25 ($50 USD). And a resale and rental copy, which in film is actually about GBP 80 ($160 USD).

Currently in the United States, there is no system to protect gaming companies from eager fans who want to try out their games. Clearly, Belgium has taken a bold stand by telling gamers: “The less chance you have of playing our sweet, sweet games, the better. Now, have a Waffle.”

You Decide.

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[Sources: Eurogamer, Kotaku]

Comments

Doug Rosbury

- February 15, 2009 9:50 AM

No problem for me. I decided a long time ago that game playing
was an occupation that could become an obsession as it is
with many of us, so I avoid any temptation to play them. It's just something that many others do whos behaviour i refuse to copy. I'm not a clone and I wish to remain the unique indiviual that I started out as.----Doug

Shigeru

- February 19, 2009 1:49 AM

And yet, Doug, you didn't avoid the temptation to troll game websites and throw your own (unique) two cent's worth in on a subject you admit doesn't affect you.

Well, as a gamer who is NOT a clone, I see banning rentals in Europe accomplishing much the same as Prohibition in the United States did for alcohol: drive it underground and make it profitable to break the law. It's already bad enough the bittorrents and sites like Pirate's Bay are eroding the game designers' profits, now you're wasting the taxpayers' dollars policing retailers to make sure they don't break the law, all the while the actual criminals will start making a killing copying hard-to-find games for the curious or desperate. Honestly, with so many places in the world struggling with economic woes, the enforcement of this law seems so ridiculous in perspective.

Andy

- February 20, 2009 11:11 AM

all excellent points, Shigeru (including the bit about Doug). I'm also not sure about the logic behind the renting and it's negative impact on profits. How is renting worse than giving a demo? I mean except for the few people who can play through a game in a few days and never want to play it again, renting provides a cheap way to try a game and then purchasing that game if you enjoyed it. I would think rental systems actually improve profits.

Toby

- February 21, 2009 4:01 PM

I like the fact this article totally ignores its own quote, which proposes something that makes perfect sense, and instead writes off the whole decision as insane.

dusty

- February 22, 2009 8:35 AM

WUDddUp DouG! duuuuudue i totally feel the same, we should hang out some time ----dusty

gmanwiz

- February 25, 2009 2:12 PM

lol thats so dumb, gaming industries gona kill itself. I barely buy games now cus its too expensive (valve did some research on this and came to that conclusion), now i cant even rent them, ur only losing more, and its gona promote shity game development as people arnt gona be able to test the games they want, and may end up getting shit, thats what almost killed gaming int hte nintendo days, its just gona further promote torrenting, the gaming industry have fun with ur feeble attempts to make more money, u're only really hurting urself

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