NEWS - Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Online Rentals Soar
RedOctane, the leading online video game rental service, reports that Online game rentals increased 68% within the first month of the console price drop in May. While demand for games has increased across the board, the most noticeable increases have come for Xbox and GameCube games. The demand for Xbox Games has risen an impressive 110% and demand for GameCube games has risen a healthy 82%. "We're expecting to see a steady growth in new members as a result of the lowered console prices," remarked Kai Huang, CEO of RedOctane. "These lowered prices allow for more people to own the latest video game systems, and our service allows people to play games on them for very little money. Huang went on to note that, "by saving over $100 on the cost of a new video game system, a person could join our G2 program* and play as many games as they wanted for 5 months." "The increase in game rentals is leading us to believe that the price drop hasn't just attracted new gamers, but that many gamers are buying a second or third system," said Dean Ku, VP of Marking for RedOctane. "Based on what our members are renting, it appears as if many gamers are choosing to own multiple systems. The video game industry has never seen the amount of cross-ownership that it's seeing now. Brand loyalty is still a factor, but not nearly as much as what we saw between the SNES and Sega Genesis, or PlayStation and N64 systems. " "On average 42% of our G2 members have multiple systems. That's up from 19% just a year ago," stated Dean Ku. "The console price drop has really opened the doors for our customers to take full advantage of our service. A G2 member with multiple systems has access to twice as many games as they had before. " Kai Huang, noted that, "before May, four of the top five most-rented games where dominated by PlayStation 2 titles, but since the price drops the two Xbox games, Spider-Man: the Movie and Elderscrolls III: Morrowind have taken over the top 2 spots. GameCube titles are also starting to climb onto our charts with Resident Evil attaining the highest spot for a GameCube game at the number 5 spot. By Christmas 2002, we're expecting to see Xbox, GameCube and PS2 games spread fairly evenly across our most-rented list." RedOctane's Top 10 rentals for the 3rd Week of June 1. Spider-Man: The Movie (Xbox) 2. Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (Xbox) 3. Medal of Honor: Frontline (PS2) 4. Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2) 5. Resident Evil (GC) 6. Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2) 7. WWE Wrestlemania X8 (GC) 8. Hunter the Reckoning (Xbox) 9. Way of the Samurai (PS2) 10. Spider-Man: the Movie (PS2)Source: http://www.xboxaddict.com/
