The Real Reason Why Utah Should Miss Blockbuster
Few places scratch the nostalgia itch as well as reminiscing on a night at a Blockbuster Video.
Once a chain featuring more than 9,000 locations, corporate owned Blockbuster became extinct in 2014 and is nothing but a warm memory filled with smells of musty carpet and snack food.
This was brought about thanks to advancements in media consumption, namely video streaming.
Getting to pick a movie or two, loading up on junk food and catching the newest releases for Pizza night was a feeling kids these days won’t get to experience.
Selecting a movie to watch used to be a calculated process, full of intense inner-dialogue and sweaty palms.
You wanted to make sure the selection you were about to pick would jive with your family or group of friends.
You didn’t want to be the guy who picked a bad movie. There was no exit option, no alternative to switch over too if it ended up being a dud.
In a pre-stream world If the movie you picked was bad you had to deal with your poor choices, if it was good you were a local hero.
Those were the days, but that was long ago, more than ten years ago officially at this point and realistically it’s likely been almost twenty years plus since most had a reason to visit a Blockbuster.
It’s easier now, endless movies and shows at our fingertips as we drown in the abundance of streaming platforms that let us watch whatever we want whenever we want.
The personal connection to selecting a VHS or DVD on the shelf and anxiously waiting to get home to pop it in are sadly feelings of the past but so are things like worrying about returning your movie in time and late fees.
Convenience, accessibility and options have never been so good, so for those who wish they could experience a Blockbuster movie night one more time it’s more so a pleasant thought than a major need.
Outside of the warm fuzzy memories I envision a real reason, an actual need to where having a Blockbuster type of store in the modern world could be insanely helpful.
What would a store like Blockbuster have to offer in the modern world?
I am talking about the world of video game rentals.
Profitable? I didn’t’ say that. But helpful, absolutely.
A person used to be able to not only rent video games from Blockbuster, but the video game consoles themselves.
Throwing a party with your cool new teenage friends but only have a Nintendo 64 made for babies?
Boom! Rent an Xbox and get some Halo in.
Excited about the newest GameCube release but don’t want to pony up that money to snag it?
Boom! Rent it for a couple days, speed run that bad boy and then talk about it at lunch with your school friends later that week.
The concept was such a fantastic idea, you can see why video game companies are ok with it no longer existing.
Why pay a lot of money for a game you might not like, when you can pay little money and test it out for yourself, maybe even finish it?
Why would a parent buy their kid a home video game console when they could go rent one for a couple of nights as a reward for doing well on a test or something?
It worked incredibly well and was a large part of Blockbusters profit’s back when Blockbuster was into making money.
Picture this concept in today's world for a moment will you.
The new Nintendo Switch 2 just dropped. It runs at $449 itself or $499 as a bundle with one game, Mario Kart World.
As of now the system has been on the shelf for a little less than two weeks, and at this moment only has Mario Kart World as it’s big game.
Is buying an almost $500.00 dollar console for a single game, better graphics and some new hardware worth it for original Switch owners?
The answer is actually yes based on the data as the Switch 2 sold 3.5 million units and counting in the first 4 days alone, the fastest selling Nintendo console to date.
But facts aside, for those who can’t justify the cost and are waiting for a more fleshed out game library or better financial stability, imagine how cool it would be to stroll into a store, pay 20 bucks for the console and 5 bucks for the game and not miss out on the launch festivities.
Those are rough cost based on what Blockbuster used to do in the 90’s and 2000’s so adjust it for inflation and maybe your paying 30 for the console and ten for the game.
Even then, $40 bucks for a night or two isn't the worst deal In the world if you desperately want to see what the new stuff is all about.
You can post about it online, discuss it with your friends, throw a party and get a sample of the experience without dropping half of a grand.
Of course, the video game industry doesn’t want that, and understandably so but with a game like Mario Kart World running at $80 a pop, renting it doesn’t seem like a half bad option, especially with it being the only major game currently out on the system.
There’s many reason’s why it wouldn't work from the slow extinction of couch co-op style games and digital games vs physical games.
But still, sampling games before spending full price is an incredibly attractive concept.
Not only because of the current cost of a video game, but because of the fact alone that there’s a lot of poorly made and incomplete video games out there.
Back In the day, there was no downloadable content to be made. When a game released that was the full game. Extra content was included as unlockables.
Now because everything can be patched or fixed after release developers worry about extra content and tidying any bugs or errors after the game drops.
There’s a higher likelihood of disliking a game today than there was twenty years ago making renting a sweet option for games you might be skeptical of.
It wont happen, but it’s a fun thought, and if I say your going to miss a store like Blockbuster, miss it for the video game rentals, because that was the best loophole of them all especially when you take into account modern day pricing.
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