There are two pieces of this story that point to the fact that the big wigs over at Blockbuster might have lost their marbles. One, they are releasing a video game rental service to compete against Gamefly. Two, they are piloting the service in Cleveland, Ohio. Blockbuster must know about something about Cleveland that I don't. Maybe there is a hotbed of gamers in Ohio, or maybe Gamefly refuses to deal with people from Cleveland.

What ever the inspiration is, the fact of the matter is that Cleveland will be piloting a mail rental service for games. The service should mirror their already successful struggling DVD rental service. The video service is to open the Blockbuster Total Access and Blockbuster by Mail subscribers. The first plan allows users to add games to their queue, and when they ship, they will be charged an incremental fee for that month. In a month that a user does not receive games, he/she will not be charged. There is also a more traditional "pay one amount" plan that will allow users to rent as many games as they want.

If Cleveland takes advantage of the Blockbuster video game plan, then the rest of the US can expect to see the plan in their neck of the woods. I understand that Blockbuster is striving to stay current in the shadow of digital distribution and online rentals, but I don't know if they have what it takes to compete with Gamefly. Cleveland readers, let me know how it works out for you, OK?

Via Crunch Gear