Wal-Mart to test E-Play game kiosks
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David (aka David)
May 18 '09, 10:48
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PHYSICAL: In pilot, machines buy trade-ins and rent games, DVDs
By Danny King -- Video Business, 5/18/2009
MAY 18 | PHYSICAL: Wal-Mart might be considering a challenge to specialty videogame retailer GameStop, if a new test of self-service kiosks that allow for videogame rentals and trade-ins as well as DVD rentals is any indication.
Kiosk operator E-Play, based in Columbus, Ohio, will install machines at 77 Wal-Marts in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island by the end of the month. Most of those stores don�t have machines operated by Coinstar�s Redbox unit, the U.S. DVD-kiosk leader that agreed last year to install its machines in most of Wal-Mart�s 3,600 U.S. stores.
In addition to offering $1-a-night DVD rentals like kiosk leader Redbox, the E-Play machines will let users turn in Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation games in exchange for credit on their credit cards, the companies said. The E-Play kiosks, which can hold about 4,000 movie and game discs, pay as much as $25 for a copy of a high-demand game such as Resident Evil 5 or as little as 50� for older titles, E-Play CEO Alan Rudy said. He noted that the DVD-rental function will be turned off on machines that share stores with Redbox kiosks.
�The Redbox machine does not sell games or allow for trade-ins,� said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O�Brien, who added that the company hadn�t made plans to install more E-Play machines beyond the pilot program. �We�re interested because of the added convenience of games in these units. It provides a great competitive price for games.�
Last July, NCR, the world�s largest automated-teller machine maker, bought a minority stake in E-Play in an agreement that the companies said would add several thousand DVD-trading self-service machines in GameStop and Dollar Tree stores as well as other U.S. retailers within the next few years. E-Play, which doesn�t disclose total units, also has machines in some Wal-Mart stores in Canada.
Although E-Play�s Wal-Mart machines will have the same blue-and-yellow colors as Wal-Mart stores, they won�t have a Wal-Mart logo on them, and they�ll be owned and operated by E-Play. The kiosks will charge $1 a night for both DVD rentals and game titles, and $2 for the first night for Blu-ray titles and $1 for each night thereafter.
�There�s a big difference between what we�re providing and other DVD rental kiosks,� said Rudy. �We hope there�s going to be a broader rollout.�
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