Belgium outlaws rentals – Are pre-owned games next?
In what has got to be one of the most ridiculous pieces of legislation ever, Belgium, that small European country famous for chocolate and chips (served with mayonnaise), has outlawed videogame rentals. Could this spread to other countries? And if so, could it then lead to the sale of pre-owned games being banned?
Kotaku reports how the Belgian Entertainment Association, which looks out for the interests of games publishers in the country, has managed to persuade the government to outlaw all game rentals. The reasoning it used to justify such a move was that renting games decreased sales of games. Which is dubious to say the least.
Shops haven’t been able to buy any new games to rent out since June, and in December, the law will come in fully, meaning no Belgian gamer will be able to rent any software. Which is pleasing the publishers but annoying the gamers, you know, those people that actually keep these companies in business.
The first thing I dispute is the claim that rentals are bad for business. Sure, if the rented game is a dog than it’s likely to be sent back after a day or two and the retail version never bought. But more often than not, I’ve rented a game that I desperately wanted to play but just wanted to make sure it would have the legs to be worth buying.
In that scenario, I’ve still bought the game after renting, which is clearly good for the companies publishing the games. And even if not, then surely it’s my right to try a game before buying.
Where could this policy lead? Well, earlier this year, EA claimed that second-hand games were evil, and it isn’t happy seeing its games being played by multiple owners. So were games rentals outlawed in more countries than just Belgium, you can imagine the next step would be to outlaw pre-owned games as well.
Thankfully, most countries aren’t as backward as Belgium and their governments would tell games publishers where to go if they demanded these sort of draconian measures be brought in.
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8 Responses to “Belgium outlaws rentals – Are pre-owned games next?”
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October 31st, 2008
Wow, so retarded.
Now can the game rental company go and bitch ebcause now they’re losing revenue
October 31st, 2008
How gay is that? I don’t know about anyone else, but I usually hire a game over a weekend and buy it if I like it. So I support the local video store as well as the game companies.
October 31st, 2008
Yes that is stupid. Glad I don’t live in Belgium. I rent a game sometimes because I want to try it first as well, but really my habit is that if there is no online I don’t buy the game as there is no replay value. If they gave a cut for every rental then it may not be that bad.
October 31st, 2008
Outlawing selling used games in many countries would be near impossible.
Can you imagine the police combing a garage sale in order to find any old games?
Can you imagine the publishers needing to make sure the games are in stock for MANY YEARS after the first release so anyone that wants the game can get it?
No, the police have better things to do and no one wants to keep making FF7 in order to make sure that gamers that heard it was good may be able to get it so long after it was put on shelves.
Outlawing sales of used games outright would be bad for everyone. Of course, it could be slightly more reasonsable (which makes it only very unreasonable) with some limits put on it, such as price floors, lengths of time, and, of course, a pay raise for congressmen (what law could get though without something for the politicians?)
November 1st, 2008
Actual REPORTING from Dave Parrack rather than an article full of conjecture and speculation! Yay!
What a dumb idea Belgium. What’s next, no movie renting?
November 1st, 2008
That’s so gay that Ivan won’t even post here.
November 2nd, 2008
Harry, actually, the problem is that there is nothing for fanboys of one console to flame those of the other console about.
It’s quite sad really that any article that can’t be reduced to that is left untouched by most commentors.
November 2nd, 2008
Yeah, but where’s the fun in agreeing all the time?