“You will own nothing and you will be happy”
When Xbox did this you paid monthly, subscribed to game pass and at the end of two years you owned the console. It was also less expensive than the separate cost of console and subscription, to the tune of 1p. 😂
It wasn’t a bad deal for me. I was going to be paying for Game Pass anyway, and this was when the consoles weren’t always staying on shelves. Managed to snag one of the lease-to-own versions or whatever and never regretted it.
Back then, my wife wanted to play Halo 5 co-op and without split screen, this was the best way to do it.
In the US I think I saved $20 at the end of 2 years by getting the console and gamepass bundle. Then canceled gamepass when they raised the price.
People used to rent their televisions because the technology was too expensive to own outright. It’s weird that this business model is becoming viable again, and specifically for hardware that’s been in circulation for a while. I appreciate that Sony are just looking at ways to expand their player base, and i’d presume some of the economic drivers are out of their control, but I don’t think this should be encouraged or tolerated.
It’s viable again because well… gestures vaguely at everything
HP just launched a laptop ‘subscription’ service too. It’s a rather disgusting sign of the times. Companies would love for this to become the norm, because renting is a highly profitable game. Get that sweet money coming in month after month. And you are right; we must not encourage them.
I’d rather save up and go to the second-hand marketplace than line a corpo’s pocket by renting.
Folks here jest, but this business model is coming to PCs next. Bookmark my words!
(Literally, you can right-click the perma-link to this message and have quick access to it later so you can reply, “Damn, you were right!” And post the link to big PC vendors suddenly offering a similar services because DRAM and GPUs have become so expensive, normal people can’t afford to buy PCs anymore)
Sorry, you don’t get any points for this prediction, because it already exists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pomC1CfpC0
You’re late to the party, GN released this a year ago. They’ve been doing this already, but because most people who PC game are semi-tech savy, build their own.
No, because PC is an open platform, not dependent on specific hardware.
To be fair I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s already a vendor for that. They already kinda do that with Chromebooks at schools, and work computers are sometimes lent out to workers including those with beefy hardware. Doing it strictly for gaming wouldn’t be that much of a stretch lol
companies like Sony literally created the economic conditions that make this disgusting tactic unsurprising to see btw.
Furniture rental services are the devil’s work, it really is.
Semi-related, my family had rented furniture before. We had rented like this bedroom set and a wardrobe. It’s ludicrous to be into doing that. That’s why I thrift for furniture. Will I ever come across a PS5 thrifting? Probably never, not unless it’s just the shell of the console itself but even then someone will take it.
Only use-case I’ve had for rental was when I was at a military school for five months. My roommate and I needed a TV in our barracks room, but there wasn’t much point in buying a TV (each of us had TVs back home), so we rented one for five months. It was great. One of us also bought a Wii (dating myself here), so it was a great time.
That’s about the only case I can think of renting furniture/appliances. If you are temporarily someplace and can’t thrift an item at a reasonable price.
You’ll own nothing. And be happier for it.
Is what corporations and the predatory class would have we believe.
We could also rent our couch! It’s only $25/month!
Useful idiots go crazy
I paid $30-something a month for an Xbox Series X and GamePass for 2 years. And I got to keep the Xbox!
(Xbox All Access. It’s no longer offered. And you saved $20 if you did it, at the original price of GamePass Ultimate, $15/month, it’s since doubled in price since they told Congress buying Activision would lower prices for consumers.)
You shall own nothing.
