My last post related to the new Netflix integration into the Xbox Live world. While I have been enjoying this new feature immensely, its got me thinking …. What about game rentals??

A few months ago I cancelled my Gamefly membership because of some budgeting and time reasons. I had worked my way up to a level 3 membership earning discounts and other things with my account. It was definitely sad to leave Gamefly but now, I’m back at it. As I went to confirm my new subscription, I remembered, ah crap … I have to WAIT for these games to be delivered via snail mail. Lame.

Xbox Live and Playstation Store already have games you can buy which is pretty cool but what about renting?? I think it would be really cool to have a Gamefly-esk service built into the consoles that give you the instant satisfaction of say … streaming Netflix movies to my Xbox.

So let’s say you have purchased the Gamefly 2 game plan. This package goes for $22.95 a month or $275.40 a year. If you purchase a gift certificate and give it to yourself, you can get the same package for $238.10.

So let’s take $238.10 and divide it by $60 … also known as the price for a newly released console game.

This comes out to 3.96 .. We’ll round it up to 4.

Essentially then, for $238.10 (the price of 4 games) … you can RENT 2 games out at a time for an entire year. If you are an avid gamer, this math makes complete sense. Will I play more than 4 games in a year, you betcha. So why not just rent them? You always have the choice to keep them if you REALLY like them.

Thoughts?