By now, you’ve probably heard the joyous news that we’ve added video game rentals to Blockbuster By Mail subscription plans at no extra cost. That’s right! You can get games mailed to you just by adding them to your Queue like movies. Find out more on our lovely games page.
We’re naturally pretty excited about this, as are many of our customers. And since the only way I know how to express my joy about new things is to make a corresponding list of movies, here’s a list of video game movies to add to your Queue. Along with some actual video games. Because that’s how we roll now.
The Wizard
By far my favorite movie on this list. Maybe it’s mostly nostalgia, because I was around the same age as Fred Savage when the movie was released. Or maybe because it heavily featured the Nintendo Power Glove. But probably because the movie is just plain awesome.
Resident Evil
The movie was okay, but it certainly is not as scary as playing Resident Evil was the first time. It just shows you how much more involved you are while playing a game than watching a movie.
Street Fighter
Wow this is a bad movie. But bad in such a way that I’m fascinated by it. Every time it’s on TV, I stop to watch a little bit. I can’t help it.
Wing Commander
Another movie that’s not going to win any awards, but I loved the game as a kid, and it was interesting to watch the story as a film. Also, the Kilrathi (man alien bad guys — no YOU’RE the nerd!) look hilarious. And it’s nice to see Matthew Lillard still benefiting from his turn in Scream.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
A so-so adaptation of the game. Although if you’re going to watch this, you might as well just watch Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Super Mario Bros.
It’s incredibly weird, but then, when you think about it, so is the game. I mean, a plumber is sent to a magic kingdom full of fungus and has to save a princess from a giant dinosaur guy?
The Last Starfighter
See — playing video games isn’t a waste of time. It’s training for the almost certain eventuality of needing to defend the solar system from hostile aliens. In your face, mom!
Tron
Or maybe in case you get sucked INTO a video game. By the way, the trailer for Tron Legacy looks TOTALLY. SWEET.
War Games
This movie gave me a bit of a complex when I was younger. One minute, you’re just playing a game, then next you’re starting a nuclear war. That’s a lot of pressure when you’re eight.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
It’s out today, and I can’t wait to see it. The video game styling/art direction looks fantastic.
I switched from netflix, I’m glad I did, instant movies looked terrible on my HDTV and now that BB offers games &movies for one low price how could I pass that up?? What’s better still is I have two bb stores in my area.. I was sold on bb getting New movies first. I didn’t like waiting for 30 days..
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by BLOCKBUSTER Online, GamingBits, AmyHuff, MovieFanForever, Perry Andrews and others. Perry Andrews said: RT @blockbuster: In honor of Blockbuster By Mail now including games, here are some sweet video game movies for you to rent. http://bit.ly/aCUf4B [...]
Loved watching the Last Starfighter when I was a kid. The folks didn’t buy my argument that I could someday save the universe by playing video games though.
Wow, Tron Legacy looks amazing, can’t wait to see it when it comes out.
you missed one Mortal Kombat
I can’t believe it, Blockbuster suckers me back in and I buy it. They said come back, we’ll include what you want in your plan, games! Little did I know ofcourse that, I won’t be able to rent games by mail until they’ve been out for general release for two to four months. Not cool, this is not what happens in the stores and there is nothing Blockbuster could say to explain why this is in any way fair. Absoulutly no reason reason for them to “have” to do it this way, which is what they will probably claim. If they want to make game renters happy they need to treat them the same as new release movies by mail. Simple.
The reason we choose to implement delays for some new games is so we could add games without raising the price of our Blockbuster By Mail plans. Due to the cost of new games, we couldn’t include them immediately upon release and still maintain our current prices.
Not sure why they added this feature if they will not send you the game.
I have had a video game in my que at top for days which shows available, and they keep sending the next movies available below this..
You would think that they would want to make good on their decision to add games to their movies by mail.
I am sorely disappointed, but with a big company like this, there is never anyone to speak to who might be of any assistance to a paying customer.
Mike, if the game is at the top of your Queue and showing as Available, but not shipping, you may want to make sure your Shipping Preference in My Account is set to Order and not Speed. Even though it’s Available, the game may be farther away from you (at a different distribution center) than some of the movies near the top of your Queue.
If that doesn’t help, you can call Customer Care at 1-866-692-2789, email them via webform, or message them via Twtter at http://twitter.com/blockbustercc
You missed Hitman, which was a pretty good movie for being based on a video game!!
David,
Took your advice and changed my settings.
I had a game that was at the top of my Queue and showing “available” and later, it even showed in my queue as processing, then the next day they choose another movie.
What seems to be the problem here?
Again, i am confused on the addition of games, which would be great if you actually sent them.
Hi Mike,
I haven’t heard any other reports of that happening for games, so there may be an issue with your Queue. Please contact Customer Care so they can look into it for you.
Phone: 1-866-692-2789
Email: Webform
Twitter: http://twitter.com/blockbustercc
Hey Mike,
I had the exact same problem, more than once, with not receiving video games by mail too. Recently the top (7) in my queue were all video game titles being listed as “Available” – (8) & (9) were on a “Short Wait”. However, they skipped over all (7) and shipped me a movie from # (10) in my queue instead. Unbelievable!
And after I complained to Customer Care before about this problem. They tried that “Speed vs. Queue Order” line with me as well. But by switching it just gives them a license to keep you waiting even longer. And suggesting that their customers should accept slower service and to receive fewer titles per month is a completely unacceptable solution to this problem.
In the near future, I predict that BB will discontinue “games by mail” at no additional cost. Simply because their supply cannot obviously keep up with the demand. Sad but true.
I completely agree with Dan’s post on Aug 18th. I’m very disappointed with the new “so-called” online video game rental service as well. I thought it was great at first. There were nearly 300 Wii games available to put in my que. And when the games were available they came in the order i specified on my que. GREAT!!! Especially since my local store has been shut down and my kids have nowhere to rent games. But today was a completely different experience, unfortunately. All of the 300 Wii games listed said “not available for online rental or purchase” EXCEPT for ONE!!! OMG I was infuriated!!!
And the EXCUSE given above about the need to delay for “some new games” to avoid raising Mail plan pricing is insulting. First and foremost you should have asked your customers what they would have preferred. I would have EXPECTED & PAID a reasonable increase in price for this service due to the cost of the games and the demand. Secondly don’t mislead your customers. If you start off by offering every available game and then decide afterwards that it puts the company at a financial disadvantage by doing so-TELL YOUR CUSTOMERS THE TRUTH. Instead you continue to advertise that you offer over 3000 games for online rental. Really? can you tell me which ones because I haven’t been able to find any????? And please don’t tell me it’s just limited to new releases, because there are games released 2 years ago that are listed as not available for online rental. Unless you guys do something quick, I’m cancelling and going with Net-flix.
Hi Ann,
We’re actually having a technical issue that’s causing most of the games on the site to show as not available to rent. Our development team is working on it now. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Ann, Michael, Mike, or anyone else with this service:
Did any of you have the games in your queue mysteriously disappear today? I did, and now with their “technical issue” going on, I can’t even add them back on.
This being right after I had the same issue with “available” games being skipped over (18 of 22 games, all in the top slots), which caused me to switch to “Order” priority over speed. A thing that I agree shouldn’t have been an issue in the first place, since a game shouldn’t be marked “available” if it really isn’t in your area. I don’t think anyone using this service cares if a game is available SOMEWHERE in the US, if you aren’t going to ship it to them. Just mark it on a wait of some kind so we know.
OF course, as luck would have it, I had just returned two movies, only to have all my games missing from my queue, and then have two other movies shipped out. So EVEN IF, the problem is fixed tomorrow… EVEN IF all of my previously selected games are returned back into my queue in the correct order/priority… and EVEN IF they actually ARE avaialble for delivery… I’ll still have to wait till Monday to get the movies, return them at the store (As opposed to the slower return mailing time), and wait another day or two to see if I even get a single game that should have been sent out in the first place.
David, I understand you are doing your best to deal with all the unhappy backlash, but can you please pass this up the chain? Either change your metrics for what is “available”, make the service location-based for each account holders area of residence, or change the prices for the added games as a service – but make it completely transparent. All this frustration is going to do is make more people leave to Netflix, Gamefly, and/or Redbox… which have already caused Blockbuster to file a chapter of bankruptcy to reorganize and avoid their debt. And that would only make things worse on the company.
As for me personally, I think the right thing to do for my issue would be to reinstate my games in my queue and send me out the top two according to my two at a time plan. I would think that would be only fair. If that can’t be done, then I’d like to hear what alternatives you have to make up for the issues… not just reasons for why they happened in the first place.
Thank you.
Chris,
The games disappearing from your Queue is definitely related to the availability issues. I can’t make any changes to your account, but you can contact our Customer Care department to see what they can do about the missing games if they aren’t restored to your Queue when the issue is corrected. You can call them at 1-866-692-2789, email them via webform, or message them at Twitter. I recommend Twitter if you have an account, as it’s normally quick and effective.
As far as passing your comments up the chain, I’m sending all feedback about games by mail to the group in charge, and I will certainly pass your comments along.
My games aren’t shipping either.
But I can’t complain because I’m not being charged extra.
Haters need to remember that it’s a new service and can be prone to some hiccups. It’s also free…
I rented a game the day the service started…got my XBOX360 game Fallout 3 right away and still playing it. As far as the 2-4 month delay, well I can wait that long to avoid paying $8 to rent one for only 5 days. There is no game out there that can’t wait and makes perfect sense as BB likely moves some of the store rentals to online once demand slows. At this price that delays is just fine. The games actually are the only thing keeping me right now.
I went back to “Netfix” to see if they improved and because they had StarTrek-Remastered which BB did not. I really like the changes Netfix made and my kids love the streaming in HD.
As far as my BB que goes, I had 13 available DVDs in que and it skips them all to send one at position 20+. They should always send them in order. People put DVDs in order of preference. If I really want a DVD keeping it at position 25 would cause it never to ship and their logic is really messed up when they tell you to only put available in the top of the que.
That excuse about not being at a local center is crazy, so what mail it from where it is…even when I accepted delays they still mailed back to the center in my state. Now new DVDs that came out today show as on order (The Office which came out last week and Barbie-Fashion). Already had 2 discs of The Office mailed from my 1 at a time Netfix while BB still shows it as “on order”. If not for the poor management of the ques I would really have no issues with BB but if they can’t send available DVDs in order, then Redbox and Netflix will continue to dominate them and that’s too bad as I will miss BB.
Aaron, it’s not about hating. It’s about providing a service AS ADVERTISED. That is basic customer service 101 and a big company such as BB should know better. I’m disappointed to hear you say “i can’t complain because I’m not being charged extra.” That is complete rubbish. Why does the fact that it’s no additional cost make it ok to provide us with sub-standard quality service? Sad thing is, there are others like you that have the same mind-set.
David…thank you for your quick response and I hope that the “group in charge” will be able to bring the service up to at least the minimum expectations of your customers.
hey David,
do you think BB.com will ever let gamers pay a higher price in order to rent the newer games? Waiting 3-4 months is pretty hard!
“The reason we choose to implement delays for some new games is so we could add games without raising the price of our Blockbuster By Mail plans. Due to the cost of new games, we couldn’t include them immediately upon release and still maintain our current prices.”
No wonder Blockbuster is in Bankruptcy, they have morons running management. You don’t stay afloat by making consumers compromise to your demand, you stay afloat by offering spectacular services, products, and thinking outside the box. The word of mouth from those practices maintain customer loyalty. It’s why blockbuster is going under and outside of the box thinkers like Netflix, Redbox, and Gamefly are building momentum. The little overhead of a brick and mortar store allowed them to undercut these big, bloated, and unwilling to change corps like BB. Only recently has the big guys been trying to play catch up, only too find out their version of what Gamefly is subpar and compromising.
If I were you I would allow for different pricing schemes, say a competitive price on par with Gamefly with new releases to allow rental of new games on release date + old games as well. then another pricing tier (the $9 a month price) that allowed those who had patience to wait 2 month for the new releases + old titles.
Game rentals is a joke. I was a member of the beta service for close to a year and loved it, even though it cost an extra $8/month. Then they went live to the public and I got several of my friends to sign up because it was still cheaper than a Gamefly/Netflix account. Then they made the service free and it was an even better deal.
Now they’ve changed it so you have to wait 3-4 months to rent a new release? Seriously? It’s no wonder this company has been swirling the drain for the last few years with management decisions like this.
I’ve compiled a list of feedback for our games by mail team, so I can definitely tell them there’s interest in that. Thanks!
Games that are already out on shelves have a huge wait to rent from this service. Every game I am interested in has a wait to it, yet I can walk into the BB store now and rent it.
There should be an option in the drop-down menu under each console that says “available”, “no wait”, etc… something to that effect.
[...] I found this tidbit over at the Blockbuster blog. [...]
I have also been greatly disappointed by blockbusters games by mail service. Not only am i having similar issues an the people before me as far as getting there games go. I accidentally mailed a game of my own back to them. when i called the first guy said he was filling out a request for it and that i could expect it back within a month. The second guy told me that here discs are handled mechanicaly and that the only way they would even realize that it wasn’t the their movie and was my ps3 game was if someone who received it reported it. Now its been 4 months an i am missing my old gamefly subscription more everyday.
I thought the Blockbuster game subscription deal was pretty good until i realized that you have to pay additional money to rent games from the store.they give you a $4.00 off coupon.Whats the point in paying monthly if your standard 2-3 games per month cost additional money at the store?
With your paid subscription your 2-3 movies per month should not cost a thing extra through the mail or store.Now the 5-in store trades i would not mind paying a $1.99 fee since that is extra bonus.
As far as the movies go,you even have pay money to see the instant DVD movies.With Netflix you get unlimited instant movies. I do not how Blockbuster is going to make it they cannot compete…
Wow. I used to be a frequent bb customer. I recently went back to buy some used movies and was told about this “game by mail” program. I thought $8 per month sure beats the $120/month I’m spending on buying games. I finally checked out the inventory tonight and saw these availability dates 2-4 months out. What gamer can wait that long to play a new release? Maybe I’m impatient, but I’d gladly pay more to get a game when it actually comes out. I would think by offering a more attractive product you could get more customers and thus offset additional costs. BB, please have someone more in touch with the average consumer design this program and you might actually get my money. Until then, I’ll stick to buying elsewhere.
Last week, I had gamefly, 15.95 a mnth for one game at a time. I had seen a ad for this online service, so I instantly cancled gamefly annd signed up for the free trial, and because I just realized I have to wait three mmonths until I can rent Black Ops, 2k11 etc.!!! Why would BB put such a huge inconvinance to us customers!!
WHAT A JOKE BLOCKBUSTER!!!! You advertise games rentals to lure new customers and as soon as they sign up and look click on the new release games you list it informs the customer that the game wont be available for 2 months. Are you kidding me! I called to cancel and received a refund. Bit of ADVICE! DON’T ADVERTISE GAME RENTALS IF YOU CANT KEEP UP WITH DEMAND. ITS LIKE DANGLING A PIECE OF CANDY IN FRONT OF A CHILD AND SAYING NO,NO YOU HAVE TO WAITE 2 MONTHS TO EAT THIS. Don’t fall for this trap.
i have 23 video games on my queue (which does not count new releases that are not yet available to rent). Only two of those games are marked as available. The rest are on some level of wait. I had to dig deep to find two games that were available. I dont mind the wait for new releases, but having to wait for a game that was initially released in 2008 is ridiculous. If it keeps getting worse, Im going to have to go back to gamefly and netflix (shudder).
Wow, I’m so disappointed!? I can’t remember the last time I was interested in renting from BB, that’s until they started advertising the new online bundle with games. Signed up, got my first movies next day, watched them and strolled into my local BB to exchange them for some games, when I got the “sorry only games labeled 99 cent can be rented out”? ” go online to have new games added to your que for delivery” ok I thought? 4 months!! Until available! That’s just sad, and to top it all off, my games are in at my local BB. I just don’t get the logic? I thought the point was to get new customers to pony up $15 a month, more customers, more money? On average I rent new movies maybe once, twice a month if that? You would figure BB would try to corner the market, give life back to local stores, if you go to BB to exchange a game, more than likely you’ll buy candy, pop, or previewed movies at a discount? Who in their right mind would wait 4 months for a game? By then, I would have already have bought it at a discount? BB should allow customers to grab new releases at their local branch, no charge. Figure in that you will have one disk of your plan out for a couple of weeks, hence, no shipping costs, a satisfied customer, and a visiting customer to a local store 2-4 times a month. GYST guys, you’re losing to online based companies, because you won’t take a little loss at the front end. You have one thing the other guys don’t, a store people can receive instant gratification. Movies, games, otherwise.
all three games that I have in my queue have a blank next to availability, so I went to my local store and they said I can’t use a movie that came in the mail to exchange for the same games in the queue! Said I’d have to pay 1.99 per day to rent the same games! That is crazy and I feel deceived by this whole membership deal. VERY DISAPPOINTED IN BLOCK BUSTER!