GEO, a Japanese firm that makes a speciality of shopping for, promoting, and renting merchandise (notably bodily discs and video video games), introduced that its new PlayStation 5 rental service has been doing exceptionally properly because it began on February 28. One month following the preliminary rush (which coincided with the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds), half of GEO’s 400 shops with rentable PS5s reported nonetheless renting out consoles at 100% working capability.
In an interview with ITmedia, GEO consultant Yusuke Sakai explains that the choice to supply PS5 leases got here because of the declining rental gross sales of CDs and DVDs (which is basically attributed to the rise of on-line subscription providers). This decline in bodily media leases additionally coincided with the steep worth improve of the PS5 in Japan in September 2024, when the console’s worth was hiked up from 66,980 yen (about $470 USD) to 79,980 yen (about $561 USD) This prompted Sakai’s division to look into ways in which GEO might capitalize on the corporate’s know-how with the console.
“We began trying into whether or not we might use our present rental system to lease out PS5 consoles,” says Sakai. “GEO additionally buys PS5s, so we had the know-how for upkeep and different points. As there have been no extra labor or coaching prices wanted to start out renting PS5s, we have been capable of provide them on the lowest costs within the trade,” says one other GEO rep.
As for the service itself, you’ll be able to lease a PS5 from particular GEO shops for eight days and 7 nights at 980 JPY (round $6.9 USD). If you wish to hold the console for longer, you’ll be able to avail your self of the fifteen-day and fourteen-night plan that prices 1,780 JPY ($12.50 USD). Any extensions exterior of your preliminary plan come at 500 JPY ($3.5 USD) per day.
With reference to save knowledge, you get a manufacturing facility reset PS5 everytime you use the rental service. This implies you’ll be able to’t re-rent the identical unit along with your knowledge nonetheless on it. As an alternative, you’re inspired to both use the longer plans or lengthen your current one. Contemplating the size of some trendy titles, this may increasingly have been a part of GEO’s technique.
Whereas PS5 gross sales have by no means been larger, Sakai says that the console rental service is an extension of GEO’s rental philosophy that permits individuals to get pleasure from costly issues at a cheaper price. The service appears to be going properly for GEO, as half of its shops throughout the nation are totally booked.