Topic: Would being able to rent games online be a good idea?

Instead of just having a free demo (which would still remain), you'd pay about 100 Points a day (regardless of how long you played it during that day) to be able to play the full version. Also, every day's rental would come off the total cost of the game. If you rented a 500 Point game for two days, then you could purchase the game for only 300 Points at a later date. You pay for how many days rental you wish to have in advance and can extend your rental at any time. You could not cancel your rental for a refund though.

You would only be able to play your rented games while connected to online though - just so that you can't cheat the system.

The good side to this is that you can play the full game without the risk of buying a game that may seem okay in the demo or had no demo but you don't like once you bought the full game. Also, if a gamer isn't willing to spend the full amount in one go or is low on points, they can spread the cost. Companies will also make some money on games that people wouldn't have downloaded otherwise. Gamers would also feel encouraged to buy games that they have already rented because they would be cheaper than other games (unless they hated the game).

The bad side to this is that really bad games would not make their full amount that they are charging for. How many times have we downloaded a game only to start playing it and immediately find out that we shouldn't have bothered. Good news for us but bad news for companies.

OnLive does this. You get a 3day pass for a certain amount. Doesn't reduce the overall price, but it allows you to rent...PC games (Who'd have thought, eh?)

Genereally i like your idea, Bass X0.
I thought about this for retail games and rental services some time ago.
I just don't see it happening because there are many short games like LostWinds, Castlevania and Contra Rebirth. Many would only bother to play through these games in one day and therefore there wouldn't be the revenue they deserve to have.
"Only" having demos for each and every game seems to be good enough to me.

This is a brilliant Idea, one I would like.
But the one problem is that you could just buy a game, complete it, and then not pay full price for it.