Playstation 3 owners have discovered that Sony has put up rental options on the Playstation Store, albeit still inoperative.
@psnstores pic.twitter.com/lX9nVHtQuM
— Brian Artist Jackson (@Nabeshin186) March 13, 2014
The option has been set up in particular for one game, Atlus’ story-driven puzzler Catherine. The game is available now for $ 9.99, but rental options have been set for 1, 7, or 30 days. For the moment, the prices show that they are free, but of course that’s illogical so these appear to be placeholders for now.
This fan actually tried to go through with it to find out what they can. After picking 1 day rental, he found that it had an expiration date a month ahead. Assuming this turns out to be the case when rentals do become operative, Sony appears to be giving users a month from purchase to open their rental. So, someone who picks a 39 day rental could conceivably spend almost a month not touching it, and then playing it, giving them 2 months ownership of said game, technically speaking, of course.
This appears to fall in line with Playstation Plus, microtransactions, and other pricing options Sony and its competitors have been trying out. Nothing intrinsically bad or good about it, Sony may just be testing the waters if there’s money to be made with alternate pricing options. Or perhaps its Atlus which is giving this a try right now. In any case, would you rent games from PSN? How about on other digital platforms, like XBL, Steam, or the Nintendo eShop? Share your opinions with us below.
