14 DAY TRIAL // Direct2Drive, one of the main players in the digital distribution market for video games on the PC, has announced that it is launching a new rental service which will allow gamers to play some titles in its catalog for a limited time by paying a small fee.
Users who are interested can pay 5 dollars in order to play five hours of games like Silent Hill: Homecoming, Divinity 2, F.E.A.R. and the racer Grid, with plans to expand the number of games included in the near term.
The problem with a five-hour game time rental is that it's not enough to see the game through to the end, which is possible when a player rents a physical disk, and that for some titles it's not enough to get into the main body of the experience.
Moreover, a player that rents a game can then purchase it and will have the price of the rental taken into account at checkout.
The direct competitor to Direct2Drive in this new digital rental space is the OnLive service, which relies on streaming, that allow gamers to play a certain game for three to five days and pay from 5 to 9 dollars.
It will be interesting to see whether Steam will watch the move made by a rival and decide to offer something similar, allowing players to get acquainted with a title before taking the decision to spend the full retail price on it.
Direct2Drive is backed by IGN and is competing with services like Steam from Valve, Impulse from Stardock and Gamersgate.
The video game world seems to be moving towards a more flexible future, where publishers and distribution services aim to offer as many options as possible to customers, allowing them to spend small amounts of money initially to get their first taste of a title and then give up the rest of the purchase price.