The blockbusters here in Chicago have been selling the consoles for a while. The one on Diversity and Ashland has them all stacked up with a bunch of rock band and guitar hero sets for sale too.

Seems like a strange place to buy a game system to me - quite the impulse.

Slow note from a sinking ship.

Not sure what I think of this. I never liked Blockbuster but I'd welcome another store actively pursuing the video game consumers since it probably means more competition and game deals.

I see a lot of rental chains moving into retail; wonder if they are scared of digital distribution? Note to rental chains: as long as you carry BluRay you'll have customers who can't be satisfied with digital distribution. It just might be a much smaller group.

Yeah - what you're going to see from now on is big name games getting the wall treatment. I don't know what they're going to focus on after GTA, but expect something else to go on the wall after a month or two.

And even though, in my opinion as an employee, this is great for the stores - we're pushing pre-orders just like Gamestop, which to me is a step backwards. Blockbuster is hoping to become a Circuit City retailer (hence the offer to acquire CC). Basically they want to be a one-stop shop for all your entertainment needs. It's a bold move and we'll see what happens in the next few years. Just don't expect Blockbuster to die.

Just another dose of fail. Remember the Gamerush or whatever they called the 'special area' of the store just for games? Yeah I do too, they spent a ton of money to set up Point of Sales for the section and then never staffed the area. Actually one store I used to visit had staff...for two weeks.

They spend all this money on their next great idea but it doesn't solve the problem. Too few copies. We had the unlimited rental option for games a few years ago, big titles would come out and they would get a dozen copies or so. Bratz got about 50 copies. Meanwhile games like Psychonauts and the like would often have NO copies at all or just one.

What really would really tick me off would be when they wouldn't have a title to rent AT ALL but yet they had 5 new copies of it for sale.

Too little, too late. They don't 'get' the business, and that is why they continue to fail at it.

How about lowering the $8 rental tag?

in the uk blockbuster sell new games for the major consoles, they sometimes run offers on new games, they do preowned games as well sometimes have some good deals, a handful of their stores have retro sections, those are the stores that used to have gamestation concessions, which were rebranded after gamestation was sold to game

I don't want to be an advertising shill or anything, but I really, really like Blockbuster. With the Total Access plan I get unlimited movie rentals online AND in store every month (2 out at a time). On top of that, I get a free game rental every month, plus reduced fees for regular game rentals ($5 instead of $8). That's a pretty good deal for me.

so i herd Developers found out that,game demos affect negativly games sales,like,they sell less when a game was offered as DLC Demo and they wont do it anymore.

I suggest Bluckbusterstuff to start getting games fast and offer them as fast demo rentals if its legaly posible whatever.

Tried to buy Mario Kart Wii yesterday:

me: " Do you guys have Mario Kart Wii for sale?"
grouchy clerk girl: "Yeah"
me: "Can I buy a copy?"
clerk: "Did you pre-order it?"
me: "No."
clerk: "We only sell to pre-order customers."
me: "That's ridiculous. I have the money right here."

Then she asked me to leave because she felt threatened being confronted by a somewhat-colored person (I'm Filipino).

Will MGS4 be the next game to get the wall treatment?