Article written by Peter Chapman.
Published on 08/05/2012 at 01:47 PM.
Remember when Blockbuster was just the place you nipped into when you wanted to rent Rambo on VHS? Well, it’s come on a little way since those days and in recent months has really stepped up its marketing pitch to gamers.
Today they’re launching VIP Gamer, a new loyalty scheme which offers a really good return on your money. For every pound you spend in store or online, you can earn 100 points. You can earn bonus points for pre-ordering with them, buying certain games, renting games and even just for watching trailers on their website. They’re even going to be giving away loyalty points for entering competitions.
Loyalty schemes are nothing new, of course, but this one seems to be a more effective way of earning discounts than most. There’s a levelling mechanic that unlocks new ways of earning points or vouchers that you can print to use in store or use online.
At the very top end of those unlockable levels is the ability to spend your points on a new console. For 360,000 points (£3,600 spent, not including free bonus points) you can get a free Xbox 360 and for 450,000 points (a £4,500 spend, excluding any bonus points) you can get a free PlayStation 3.
At current in-store GAME Reward Card loyalty rates, a new 4GB Xbox 360 would cost the equivalent of 64,000 points, or a £6,400 spend. A free PS3 under GAME’s loyalty scheme would run to an £8,000 spend.
Source: Press release
Not bad, but the thought of going into such a store triggers my survival instincts as a warning. It’s just not safe!
Are those points transferable between stores? The reason I stopped trading in games at Blackbuster was that you could only use the credit at that store.
Blackbuster – what’s that Blockbuster!!
You link a online account to your store accounts and redeem the points online or as vouchers etc.
Store credit has always been transferable you just have to ask the staff to put it on a gift card.
You used the £3,600 spent and “free” right next to each other ;)
I dunno, this sounds good but the prices of games are already quite expensive.
The question is is it worth buying a more expensive game at Blockbuster in the hope of earning lots of points in the long run, instead of buying the game cheaper at, say, Amazon?
Cool beans. I buy all my games from my local Blockbuster these days. Was going to pre-order a couple of games with them yesterday so I’m glad I held fire until these new scheme came into place :)
My local blockbuster is usually cheaper than the competition (excluding the internet) I picked up heavy rain, modnation racers, la noire for £11 each only months after their releases.
Blockbuster are pretty good for ex-rental purchases or pre-owned, you can get some real bargains in there, but I’ve never bought anything new in there and don’t think I’ll be signing up to this scheme to do so.
Still, it’s good they’re trying to be competitive, extra competition means better pricing all round, right?
I thought Blockbuster were not going to be around for much longer? Bankruptcy? Administration?
Maybe I’m getting confused with the U.S. chain. Do they share anything besides the name?
I mean, if I was unsure of the stability of the brand, I wouldn’t find much incentive to try and save points there knowing I might never get to use them.
US chain went tits up, UK stil OK.
Think there’s a problem with the numbers in the last paragraph
Oops, no there’s not, just being dense. Sorry
I buy a lot of my games in store as I’m still not confident in online postage times, being proven by Zavvi when I brought the latest Naruto and got it 5 days late.
But Blockbusters stock is awful.
Also proven by Play.com when i bought LBP 2 on the 8th, posted on the 10th (Bank holiday weekend). And guess what, its not the 9th of the next month ,and no game… really got to ring them, last purchase i ever make online, since it was the first one and its really thrown me off now.
Comparison brought this to life. Cheers TSA ^_^