Can you rent PC games in your country?

Oh shi-, Electronics Boutique... not heard that since I was about 9, did we used to have them in the UK?

Anyway I used to be able to rent pc games about 10 years ago, not anymore since everyone just keeps them installed etc.

 

Electronics Boutique got rebranded EB games (the clue is in the name lol) and then Game bought them out in the UK.

I don't remember ever being able to rent PC games, but you could buy them 2nd hand.

 

^^ Not anymore; DRM forced them to stop taking back PC games. I think Mass Effect and the 5 activation limit was the one that forced that decision...

 

no idea, last time i rented any games was like 1998.. well my dad for me since i was like 12 lol

 

Same here, you can only rent consolegames, no pc games

 

We could rent PC games before.. but not anymore.

 

hey, did you guys know you can't rent pc games in the U.S.? WOW!!!!!!!!
its true

 

You can here in Spain, not many, but there are a few on Game Store ^^

 

I can rent new release pc games here http://www.gamestation.co.nz/, only place i know of in this country

 

maybe if pirating was not increasing each year, maybe we'd have more renting, just maybe.
If mod chips ever got as popular as PC pirating, renting for it would likely go out as well, just one of many reasons why i'm against pirating, cause it only hurts ourselves and our freedom. Greed does that.

 

No not anymore (I live in Canada). At least it's not common anymore I mean. There's no big name renting stores doing that anymore since many years, like Blockbusters, Videotron Super Club, Microplay and places like that, but they used to, especially Microplay. I do remember going to a "no name" (it had a name, just not Inc. or Ltd. or anything popular by any means) generic local renting store outside of the city (Montreal) when I went to my cousin's, and we noticed that on one of the shelves there had some old PC games to rent, but none of them were new. I think the newest one I saw there was S.W.A.T. 4, it's all *SPAM* back from when only disc-check SecuROM was used (I mean commonly so, that's when DRM wasn't even an existing term), so that gives you an idea.

But if I go back during the 32-Bit, 64-Bit and 128-Bit (mainly referring to the Dreamcast) days then yes PC games, and up to date ones, could be rented at most renting stores. But things change. Even back then the stores staff knew what people were doing when they rented PC games, most of the time at least, they just burned each games on CD-ROMs and the game became less and less rented over time rather then becoming popular like a console game could for instance. I mean seeing a PC game being rented for a week was almost impossible, some of them even came back only hours after they were rented, that gives you a good idea of what most people were doing with them. It's certainly understandable why they eventually left PC games in the dust and removed them from renting shelves altogether, it was financially ridiculous to try and maintain honest PC gaming rentals, and almost impossible at that, thanks (broad sense) to pirating.

It paved the way to the DRM we know today, and to on-line digital gaming purchases.

 

Here in Greece you can rent pc games+console games in every single video store.
The cd-key for the installation is on the backside of the manual as normal, but i never tried to play online.
Actually my last rent was three year's ago and i don't know what happens with games who have strong drm protection.