Blockbuster Survey Eyes Game Renters

A recent survey commissioned by Blockbuster Video asked more than 1,200 video game players and renters about their game rental habits. More than 60 percent of the 12- to 34-year-olds surveyed said they had rented a game within the past three months. The survey also showed that 25 percent of survey respondents from 35- to 55-year-olds and 5 percent of those 55 and older had rented a video game in the past three months.

The survey showed that girls tended to rent more of the educational, strategy, and puzzle games, but were renting some of the adventure games like Tomb Raider, which features the heroine Lara Croft. Young men were typically renters of sports, simulation, action, and role-playing games - picking up those genres about twice as often as girls.

Blockbuster has also changed its rental policy for video games, extending that rental period to five days and standardizing its pricing: Blockbuster's company-owned stores are now charging US$4.99 for rental of Nintendo 64 and PlayStation games and $3.49 for Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and Super Nintendo games.

The new five-evening rental policy also applies to the PlayStation and N64 hardware, which rent in most stores for $14.99 for that period.