Andre Yoskowitz
7 Apr 2008 15:00
WhyBuyGames.com,, the large European online rental company has announced that it will be adding Blu-ray movies to its current stock of video games.
The company secured external capital investment to fund the expansion, has said the decision was made due to the growth in Blu-ray player sales. The company also noted that sales "jumped sevenfold since the collapse of Toshiba's HD-DVD format."
Co-founder Aaron Barrett says he hopes that Blu-ray will account for as much as 20 percent of the company's profits in the future but that Xbox 360 games are the most popular at the moment. PlayStation 3 games were gaining popularity however.
"There has been a significant rise in PS3 game rentals this year," he said. "Due to the increase in PS3 game rentals we decided to expand our services to offer Blu-ray films and have noticed that customers are increasingly adding these into there rental queues."
"The videogame rental market has had significant growth over the last five years and is forecast to increase further but at a steadier rate," he noted. "With the cost of game development for next-gen consoles rising, the RRP has to be adjusted to reflect this - which puts game purchases for a lot of people at a low priority.
"Game rental will therefore become a far more attractive option as time goes on," he added.