Blockbuster & Hollywood Video: 350 what?

by Christopher Grant { Nov 18th 2005 at 11:30PM }

"Hi, do you guys have any Xbox 360 titles for rental?" I asked for the fourth time now.
"Xbox 350? What's that?" she replied lazily.
"Three-sixty. Xbox three-sixty. It's a game system, comes out this Tuesday but the games are already out."
"I don't think we're going to have that."

Hoping to score some more titles to play this weekend, we called the 3 closest Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos to us here at Joystiq HQ. The above conversation was almost verbatim from most of the stores called. One Hollywood Video did say they wouldn't have anything to rent for another week or so. More than one actually thought I said 350! My mumbling aside, how is it possible that they don't have any titles to rent, not to mention even know what it is they aren't renting?!

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Obvious @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

"Sexbox 220? Sorry, sir, home-video-game-pictures aren't good for children... You should refer to the internets for further information."

neanderthals.

Anonymous rep @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

One thing to remember - Game Rush is not in all Blockbusters. So your local Blockbuster may quite literally be staffed with people who have no clue about gaming.

Game Crazy (Hollywood Video) is supposed to be getting a new console for play, but again, not all Hollywood Videos have a Game Crazy.

It's the even the same with EB's - there are some EB's that have NO gaming kiosks.

I think we've done a tremendous job of installing the number of demo consoles that we had to do, especially given the production and shipping issues that are always involved when you're doing something new like this.

One other thing to keep in mind - we're not always responsible for installing the demo consoles in the stores. Sometimes those are shipped directly to the store - and we all know what happens when a retail clerk with no gaming knowledge gets to install a display console.

vidGuy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

"how is it possible that they don�t have any titles to rent"

I'm sorry, but that is a really silly question. Why would the rental stores have games out on the shelf before any of their customers could play them? Plus, in my experience rental stores don't get games until AT LEAST a week after they come out.

Most rental people won't have any clue what's up, anyway.

Sounds like my local store won't be getting a 360 till the second shipment. There's also a heavy deposit on the system rental... though I don't think a $50 deposit will deter the guy that wants to steal it, since it is a $300 system.

Aubuchon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Yeah i work at a game crazy/hollywood - It takes them at least one week to get new release rentals, sometimes 2. There is a good chance that at the rate we are getting games to sell, that they won't be getting 360 rentals for at least 2 weeks - We are barley getting pre-sale fufillments on games... we didn't even get 1/4 of our 360 presales. They are also telling us that the 360 demo units are still tied up with "contracts" with the big M. So don't hold your breath on rentals or anything guys.

Aubuchon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Oh, and also.. we have Msoft reps, even if some dumb employee set it up incorrectly, it would be fixed within a month by the rep., and also.. we are supposedly getting hi-def monitors along with the system.

theburn16 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

i used to work at video warehouse (southeastern U.S. rental chain) and we always got games within 2 days of them being out. i'm not sure how they're doing the xbox 360 though, as i haven't been up there in a while

Raln @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Shoulda went with Gamefly. They just added a 4 game plan, so I've got four 360 games on the way and they should be here by Monday(and watch as I probably have to wait two months to get a 360).

murph @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

what are Joystiq's Gamertags so we can watch your Gamerscore on Xbox.com?

tiesto81 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Hmm all the 'read' links seem to be off by one article. They reference the previous articles. Just FYI

Ryuukuro @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

People in retail know nothing...because no one tells them anything until its too late. That and they're miserable people who are using every ounce of their strength to resist the urge to quit because they have to feed themselves.

Guess what industry I work in! :(

Tim @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

My local rogers video gets games the day after. Which is weird, because Microplay (video game rental chain) doesn't get them until the week after.

Banzai @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I work at Blockbuster, which only cares about their employee's knowledge of movies. Since Netflix is beating our rears, BB is cutting back on almost everything but basic movie rentals. Our store probably wont get any 360 titles for a while, if any. The stores don't make desisions like that, corporate does, the first we really know about anything is if the package with the games arrives in the mail.

Dave @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

From so one who actually knows what is going on in BBV, i can tell you BBV game rush store are the only ones getting the rentals. (FOR NOW) As well they will not be available for rent before the actual release date of Nov 22. They will be 5 night rentals not your typical 7 day rentals and they will require you to have a vaild Credit card on file in order to rent.

Twist @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I overheard a few employees (an assistant manager and a wage slave) talking at my local GameCrazy (Hollywood's in store game store) about how they have received about 6 times the pre-orders compared to how many consoles they are actually going to have on launch day but that the manager isn't letting them warn customers because she still wants the people to line up and come into the store for the midnight thing even though the store only got like 18 360's for launch day. The assistant manager wasn't thrilled especially considering that he was going to be the one who opens up the store at midnight.

Ian @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I work at a Rogers Video up in Canada, we've been told all about the 360 and given time frame for when it's coming, games coming, all that crap. I am not working this weekend, but we may have already got the games in store, the systems should have arrived on Thursday but they are late. I'm guessing we'll have the systems for rent a day or 2 after the 22nd. With a $500 deposit of course!

petey @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Yes how come Blockbusters and Hollywood Video didn't both of them filled their stores with Xbox games for only I to not rent??? Outrageous!!! What a fool move since no one owns the console until next week!!!
lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol !!!

petey @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Cdaghostie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

My two local rental stores(not really local) one gets them 2 weeks after the other one gets them 2 weeks after or 1 week before

this means after they come out

Anonymous rep @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Hey, #5 - Aubuchon - three guesses what I do, and the first two don't count. In the stores where I do go in, it's all good, normally within a month as you said.

The problem is that there are certain retailers (Sears and KMart come immediately to mind, although there are others) who do NOT have reps come in. Those are the ones I was referring to - not the stores where we do service.

We also had an issue during the Wal-Mart installations where some guy in electronics would take it into his own head to install everything, even though it blatantly said on the box "HOLD FOR MICROSOFT REP". That's one of the reasons there were video issues during the initial set-up in some stores.

Anonymous rep @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

littestninja @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I worked for an answering service for over 2 years and I am positive either you THOUGHT you heard 350 when they were saying 360, OR they thought YOU said 350 and were thinking to themselves that YOU were the stupid one.

50 and 60 sound exactly the same over the phone and every time someone used one of those #s we had to verify with a "did you 6-0, or 5-0?" or else we would almost always get it wrong.

But that doesn't excuse the the "what's that?" comment at all!

HAVE FUN with your "350" guys! Sadly, I wont have one for a while. And that makes me sad.

Kyle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

Both Blockbusters I've spoken to regarding the availability of 360 games for rental have let me know that, as is the case with most games they get, they won't be getting games in for rent until a few weeks after launch. *shrugs*

At least they knew what I was talking about.

ZeroCorpse @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I suspect it's the same reason you can't rent any Phantom, Revolution, or PS3 games yet.

No console = No game rentals = No reason to waste shelf space.

THINK, McFly! Think!

DJ @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

On the contrary... it could be really advantageous to them if they had the games on the shelves before the system came out. Then people would know they could go to their nearest blockbuster, rent the games IMMEDIATELY when they get the system to try them out before buying them. You realise how many people would do that instead of spending the 60 dollars up front for the game? Especially on a new system... because they can't hear from their friends how good / bad the game is.

Curtis @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

The Blockbuster I work at got games in today... so I have no clue why the others are slower to act.

ZipperSeven @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM

I live in a college town and most of our video rental places are staffed by college students who already know what's going on. I went in our Hollywood video last week and they already had boxes out for the games with little tags saying they'd be available 11/23 (or maybe yesterday, not sure)

I'm not in the gotta have one first crowd....I'll probably snag a 360 after Christmas when the prices drop.

Rox @ Dec 21st 2005 9:16PM

In most rental stores, the only employees that are familiar with the release (and names) of the consoles and games are those that did of their own volition, particularly if they are lacking a GameRush, GameCrazy, and what have you. Also, the low wages limit employee concern to "barely sociable". Most of the time, questions about games come from unattended 8-year olds, so it's quite reasonable for an employee to maintain sanity by shutting off that part of their brain that almost cares that someone can't rent overpriced diversionary entertainment.