Direct2Drive Now Offers Digital Rentals
PC gamers can now rent various titles from Direct2Drive.
Friday PC gaming digital distributor (and Steam rival) Direct2Drive (D2D) announced that it's now offering rentals to PC gamers, charging a mere $5 for five hours of play. If the renter likes the game and decides to purchase the full digital copy, the $5 will be knocked off the original pricetag.
"One of the many reasons I’m proud to work for D2D is the on-going commitment to better serve our customers and followers," reads the D2D blog. "Trust me if you could be a fly on the wall during our many brain-storming sessions you’ll walk away satisfied in knowing we take all your feedback to heart."
The first set of titles to fall within the new rental service is the original F.E.A.R., Divinity 2, Grid and Silent Hill: Homecoming.
The D2D rental deal is a bit pricey given other offerings by competing digital distributors. Steam doesn't offer a rental service whatsoever; rather, it will occasionally allow Steam members to play a select title for free over the weekend. OnLive offers a better, cheaper "rental" service at $5.99 for three days and $8.99 for five days.
Is $5 for five hours a bit steep? It would make sense to charge PC gamers a daily rate at the very least. Five days for $5 seems more reasonable, but then again many renters may actually complete the game in that timeframe, defeating D2D's plan to hook customers into purchasing the entire game outright.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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XD_dued I must admit, I actually really like this idea. Hopefully steam will pick up something similar :)Reply -
the_krasno I think that the pricing should depend on the game. For some games 5 hours is enough to like or not like it, but for some with a steep learning curve a week might not be enough!Reply -
niloluiz Five HOURS? Ridiculous.... this is basically a "paid demo" proposal which doesn't make any sense from the customer perspective. For D2D however it is a way to increase sales by hooking some people with this pseudo-rental offer....Reply -
dib Great now we have to PAY for a demo version. To top that it won't even work for 30 days. I guess new generations will think this is great and better than nothing now that companies have stopped making demos of a lot of the newer games for PCs.Reply