Silly me, I had assumed Blockbuster’s 12/28/2010 ship date for Halo Reach was merely a typo. As it turns out, their mail-order rental service imposes a 105 day waiting period on new release games. Which means I’m Halo-less this week (thus far). It also means that Blockbuster’s recently enhanced rental service ($9/mo) won’t work for many.
For a brief moment I wondered why the long wait… Could it be a deal with the game studios, a way to recycle in-store games, or some other cost saving measure? But then decided the reasons are irrelevant. I’ll be calling in to cancel later today and have just reactivated Gamefly – it costs more ($16/mo) and delivery times are often ridiculously slow, but they provide new releases. Which will tide me over until I make my Call of Duty, Black Ops purchase in November.