Blockbuster seems to be getting a lot of new support from publishers as of late. They’re currently backing the company’s recent marketing push towards rental games, seeing it as a better alternative to pre-owned games.

As many people are aware, pre-owned titles that are sold through retailers such as Gamestop don’t see any of the money from that transaction going to the developers, meaning no new products are getting added to circulation, and a bunch of other economics crap that I probably have troubles explaining. Rentals outlets, meanwhile, not only still buy their original copies from the source, renting them out for a couple days allows the consumer to try it, and if they like what they see, they can then get the whole package.

The system has been in place since the creation of video games, largely because it works so well for other media such as videos. I probably wouldn't have been able to understand the awesomeness of titles such as Super Metroid or LoZ: A Link to the Past if it weren't for the local rental store that was down the street from me when I was but a wee lad.

“We have ramped up the rental side of our business and we have got an awful lot of support from publishers,” commercial director Gerry Butler said. “Publishers like renting as it takes away from trade-ins. The problem with trade-ins is the publisher doesn’t get any money. The advantage of renting is that they get quite a lot of money.”

Recently, Blockbuster has started running it first ad campaign for video games in two years, broadcasting them during high profile shows such as football games and the X Factor. The ad gives the simple phrase that renting is “a cheap way to play.”

Along with the new campaign, Blockbuster also changed their policies a bit. They completely axed the late fees, instead allowing customers to extend their rental time by a dollar a day, similar to how it works with the red box machines that you see scattered about the place. If you happen to want to keep the game after renting it, then the original rental fee will be refunded to you as well.

With all this, you can likely expect rental services to kick up a bit, especially with the holiday season looming ever closer. Hopefully it makes life for the GGX crew a bit easier as well, because our collective gaming backlog is growing by the day.

[via MCVUK]