Retro Gaming Subscription Service? Good Idea?

[Ghudda]

I just stumbled upon a retro game subscription service called "My Retro Game Box". Basically, you pay $35/mo (+$6 shipping if you're in the US (UK based company)), and they send you a selection (evidently sometimes more than one) of retro games.

They currently select from SNES,NES,N64,GB,GBC,GBA,Master System, and Genesis at the moment. I also see a members only section called "Console Shop", so perhaps they have an exclusive shop for members to buy consoles and games. How does everyone feel about this?

I'm actually a fan of similar services (I subscribe to Vinyl Me Please, which sends you a limited ed. Vinyl LP each month), and am tempted to try MRGB for a month, but the $6 in shipping really throws me off. For a grab bag subscription service, free shipping means a lot to me. That and the absolute mystery of what they're going to send me sounds like it could be a bit of a set back for something like video games.

My Retro Game Box

[KalessinDB]

Welllll I'll be signing up for this when I get some money. Wish they had more than just Nintendo and Sega cartridge consoles, I'd love to expand my Saturn, Sega CD, or TurboGrafx/CD collections thru it...

[Ghudda]

Welllll I'll be signing up for this when I get some money. Wish they had more than just Nintendo and Sega cartridge consoles, I'd love to expand my Saturn, Sega CD, or TurboGrafx/CD collections thru it...

Exactly. Similarly to Vinyl Me Please, I really like grab bags to broaden the parts of my collection that get lesser attention. But, actually, my Nintendo stuff is somewhat lackluster, especially with NES. I'm going to think about it. Again, $35 sounded good but $41 sounds much less appealing.

[Snatch1414]

It's pretty steep in my opinion especially if you already have a bit of a collection (i.e. getting doubles). I'm also not really sure they could keep up with the demand over time especially if it gets even a little popular. To each his own though. I'm a fan of the concept, but these boxes all seem overpriced to me regardless of what's in them.

[dogman91]

The only thing that would make this worth it is if you net a "profit" in the long run from getting otherwise expensive games like Earthbound. If it's a selection of random SNES sports games, for instance, then it's a waste.

[Exhuminator]

Sounds like a good way to get Atari 2600 ET.

[Metal Jesus]

The only way this would work is if you already didn't have a collection of games OR you could enter in your entire collection on the site so you didn't get duplicates...

It's an interesting idea, but I'd prefer to put $40 per month to games I know I want.

[Damm64]

So there's a couple of unboxing videos on youtube and to be honest they all seen like product placement. They get random cheap games and they all like "oh boy this is great" and i only found one video that has the following disclaimer on the description "Please note: This was sent to me for review by Retro Gamebox" and he gets something good in comparison to the others (golden eye, super mario world and super tennis for snes)

For me at least seems like a gamble and i hardly doubt you will get something as rare or expensive like megaman x3 unless you are REALLY lucky or you advertise for them.

[Sarge]

Sounds like a creative way to unload cruddy carts no one want to pay a lot for. Like my local retro store that charges $5 for the worst NES games. I mean, I'd pick 'em up for maybe a dollar or two. Maybe.

[Nemoide]

I'm not a big fan of these kind of subscription services. It seems like it MIGHT be fun if you A) have a lot of extra money lying around and B) have an abundance of free space that you want to fill up.
Like Metal Jesus, I'd rather just add the money to my gaming budget and get titles I WANT to play!

I used to have a subscription to FeedBands, which released a new vinyl record to subscribers every month. It wasn't a total bust since it introduced me to one super-amazing album I love but there was a fair amount of bands that didn't appeal to me and I found that it just wasn't worth spending $20/month on a crapshoot. And that had the appeal of exclusive releases you couldn't find anywhere else!