LikeFilm

I have an admission to make. It’s somewhat embarrassing. The first part isn’t that bad, it actually suggests I’m an early adopter of new entertainment concepts: I’ve been a member of LoveFilm since November 2006. So long in fact, I have the original deal – £9.99 per month for a single disk at home (game or movie) but with no limit on the number of disks in a month. I don’t even think they offer that deal any more – over 5 years of rental opportunity.

I originally signed up when I realised it was a chance for me to try games out that I wasn’t too sure about, a chance to experiment. My first title through my old letterbox (I’ve moved house twice since then)? NBA Live 06. That’s right, 06.

Whilst you may be reeling from the age (and dire nature) of the game, let me throw this fact into the mix: do you know how many disks I’ve rented since 6th November 2006?

13: 4 movies and 9 games.

I can hear some of you working out the relative costs; let me save you the trouble by discounting the purchase cost of the movies, all of which could have been picked up at the point they were rented for a mere pittance and do it for you:

9 games, at best, £40 each = £270
64 months, at £9.99 per month = £639.36

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out I could easily pass for the previous Greek finance minister who also has a part time job doing Portsmouth FC’s accounts.

In case you missed it, yes, I did have Amped 3 for nearly two years. I could have bought my own snowboard with the LoveFilm subscription costs for that game.

I could give you makeshift excuses about why I never cancelled the agreement; why I never got around to returning those disks more frequently but they would all be weak. The far more relevant response is how I’m intent on clawing back my investment. That, my friends, is by using the streaming service on the Xbox 360. Before that last major dashboard update, I had never used the inherited LoveFilm streaming option, it turns out thanks to my extremely old contract I’m entitled to unlimited streaming. Unlimited!

So since Christmas, I’ve watched seasons 4, 5 and 6 of Lost, a television programme I never returned to after the end of the 3rd season when it was originally aired. I’ve also watched the first two movies in the Millennium series in the original Swedish and I’m eyeing up the next television series that I missed.

After half a decade, LoveFilm is finally paying dividends.