Lovefilm launches online game rental

Lovefilm.com is launching an online games rental service tomorrow (Thursday), offering subscribers the latest PlayStation 2 chart titles alongside the nearly 30,000 DVD titles in its catalogue.

The online DVD rental company, which is locked in a battle for market leadership with ScreenSelect, claims it is the first company to offer online game rentals in the UK.

The games rental service will work as a bolt-on to the DVD rental service, with flat monthly fees allowing subscribers to take out between one and four DVDs or games at a time. Prices start at &£12.99 for one item (compared with &£9.99 for the basic film package) and go up to &£24.99 for four (compared with &£19.99).

Lovefilm chief executive Mark Livingston says: “We want to be the leading delivery company in the entertainment space, and we will be expanding aggressively in both the physical and virtual areas.”

Future development for the Lovefilm brand is likely to involve the addition of a video-on-demand film downloading service, probably in conjunction with one of the main UK broadband services providers.

Lovefilm recently applied to extend its trademark to cover video and music downloads from the internet.

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