Gamefly Video Game Rental Review

For many years I have purchased most of my video games either new or used at my local game store. I usually traded in games once I was done with them, and only kept the ones I planned on playing again. For the most part I thought I was getting a pretty good deal by buying used when possible and trading my games in. Yet a few months back I decided to go back and see how much I had spent on games. I just looked at the past year and went through all of my credit card charges and receipts. I was shocked to realize that I had spent almost $700 in video games in one year. That includes the trades!

Now I am more than happy to spend money on video games. They are an entertainment form that I enjoy and I feel like you can get a lot of value out of video games when compared to other forms of entertainment. Heck, going to a movie will run you $10 and that is only for a couple hours of entertainment! Games provide many hours of enjoyment and I believe they are a good value even when buying new.

So having totaled up my annual costs for video games in a year, I decided to see if there were some other option out there to bring down the costs further. I looked at buying and selling on eBay, but there are risks involved and a lot of work as well. Scratch that. I then stumbled on the idea of renting video games. Looking at a couple of options, I realized that I may have found the best possible way to save money and play as many games as I wanted!

There are only a few options online for renting video games, so I asked around a bit to see if any of my friends were renting. I had a buddy who used Gamefly and he was very happy with them overall, so decided to give GameFly a try. I started with the free 10 day Gamefly trial.


After filling out my basic details, I started searching the Gamefly website for games I wanted to play. I had a list built up inside of my head already and was able to find about a dozen games I wanted to play right away. I added them to my game queue and sorted them in the order I wanted them.

The very next day I received an e-mail from Gamefly letting me know that the first two games I had in my queue were shipping. One day later I found two envelopes from Gamefly in my mailbox. 48 hours from signup and I was ready to play!

Both games arrived in good shape and were in good condition. There were no manuals with the games, but Gamefly has some basic control information on their site. You can also locate game manuals pretty easily online, so this was not much of a problem. One of the games I rented was a game I wanted to try for a while, but it was not rated well and I was not sure I would like it. Sure enough, the game sucked and I decided to send it back. Perfect opportunity to see how quickly the game would get turned around!

I put the game back in the prepaid envelope and dropped it in the mail. Two days later I received an e-mail stating that they had received the game and that same day I received an e-mail informing me that my next game rental in the queue was shipping. The next day I had the replacement game in my mailbox! Now I am in California and there is a hub close by, so not everyone will see the same speed of delivery. Yet from what I have heard, most people get games pretty quickly.

So what does it cost to rent video games from Gamefly? First of all they offer the free 10 day trial on the two disc plan, or you can get a 40% discount on your first month for either the one game or the two game rental plan. The one game plan starts at $8.95 for the first month and is $15.95 after that. The two game plan starts at $12.95 (if you do no take the free 10 day offer) for the first month and is $22.95 after that. So I am looking at $23 a month to be able to rent two video games at a time with unlimited game rentals.

What was I spending before per month when I was buying games? Almost $60 a month! So I am looking to save several hundred dollars a year by renting video games through Gamefly. Plus, I am playing more games now than before and I have the chance to try some games that I otherwise might not have tried. It is great to try a game you are not sure you will like, because if you hate it you just drop it back in the mail. No regrets!

I have been using Gamefly for the past three months and have received about a dozen games from them. I have had zero problems so far and have been very happy with the service. It is going to save me LOTS of money and will allow me to experience even more games than before. If I decide I want to keep a game, I can simply let Gamefly know I want it and they send me the case and manual and give me a great used price on the game. It is that easy!

So I would absolutely recommend that gamers out there take a look at renting video games from Gamefly. Go ahead, try the free 10 day Gamefly video game rental trial today!