Yahoo to rent games online

While it's easy to rent console games to try them out before making a final purchase, the options have been quite limited for those who'd like to try out full versions of PC games. Yahoo has announced a new service that will let those with broadband Internet access try full games out for a set amount of time. There are four price levels for rentals, ranging from $4.95 to rent one game for three days and $9.95 to rent three games for 30 days, to $14.95 to rent 10 games for 30 days.

The Yahoo service is starting out with 40 games from Activision, Eidos, Infogrames, and Take-Two. Many of the current offerings--such as Civilization III, Deus Ex, 4X4 EVO, Star Trek Armada II, and Serious Sam--were high-profile games when they were released in 2000 or 2001. Yahoo hopes to secure deals with publishers for more top-tier games aimed at frequent PC gamers as well as games for a more casual audience.

"Yahoo Games on Demand is part of our company-wide strategic initiative to deliver innovative broadband services to our users. With the strength of our Yahoo Games platform, which hosted more than four billion minutes of online gameplay and more than 8 million users in August, the addition of Yahoo Games on Demand allows us to develop deeper relationships with casual and devoted game players alike."

You can find more information on Yahoo's new service at this Web site. The concept of streaming PC game demos or game rentals isn't a brand-new one. Several companies have already launched on-demand game services, including Stream Theory and GamesMania.