1 June 08: Lovefilm have offered a rare 30-day free trial, as well as adding Nintendo DS coverage (500+ titles), this combined with recent improvements like their 7-day customer service line convinced us to move them to the coveted number one ranking. In another reshuffle, we also moved Boomerang up a notch over Swapgame, as we continue to have great feedback about them and they continue to grow.

1 April 08: Nothing new to report for April Fools Day, but we'll keep looking...

1 February 08: We updated the reviews to note that Lovefilm has reopened their phone customer service line, and an impressive seven days a week at that.

1 January 08: Not too many changes in the games rental industry for the new year, though we do have a new review for relative newcomer Why Buy Games--jury's still out on them. Also, Gamerstate appears to have gone out of business (says the domain has expired) and Sofa Cinema appears to have stopped offering the game rental option, like several other Lovefilm powered by sites.

20 October 07: After a quiet summer, we've gone through and done a mass update across the industry, checking every site we review, and updating tallies of how many titles each company has for each console. This has prompted a few ranking moves. For instance, we noticed Lovefilm's games offerings and reputation have improved, so we moved them from number four to three--also, their new 5 quid tariff for two total games/DVDs in the month is a steal for gamers, who will likely take a couple week with a game anyway. We also moved the following up: GamesFrenzy, GamezGecko, and PostBox Games, while moving Gamerstate down. Two companies have gone out of business, Daddy Game and Games by Post.

With the prime winter renting season coming up, we'll be tracking the industry a bit closer, and future ranking moves are likely as we refine our assessments of the games rental companies.

1 April 07: Several updates this month--we removed Pearl and Dean and Boots, which really don't have separate games services, little to distinguish them from Lovefilm. This brings the total UK games rental sites to 19.

1 January 07: Significant movement in the rankings this month - Boomerang and Gameflirt have moved up at the expense of Lovefilm whose customer service has suffered following their October merger with Screenselect, also due to feedback on difficulty getting games titles vice DVDs shipped. Several sites have been removed because they are no longer functioning or have gone out of business including Games-to-go, GamingR, Sainsbury's, Boxchoice, Global, Mchezo, and ChoicesUK. This brings the UK total game rental sites to 20, though if you cut out the Lovefilm affiliates, it's really 15 independent rental companies. We also had a New Year scrub of the site, added more varied advertising, and tweaked the odd review. Also see our new next generation Console Buyers Guide with tips on whether to go for the Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3.

1 October 06: No major changes this month, but everyone is looking to see how the Lovefilm/Screenselect merger on the 9th goes.

1 September 06: Sainsburys DVD and game rental service is closing down, so we'll be removing it from the rankings.

1 August 06: We conducted a major review of the industry for August, and found Boxchoice and Global e-Rental have closed recently.

1 July 06: No ranking changes for July; again, the industry is well into its summer lull, with few changes to service we can discern.

1 June 06: Again we have no ranking changes or major additions for June. We've noticed that between the very warm weather and the World Cup, interest in DVD and game rental has definitely entered its seasonal ebb

1 May 06: We've noticed two new Lovefilm powered-by sites with game rentals, Tiscali and OdeonDirect.

1 April 06: Re-rankings for April include moving Screenselect further up to the number two slot; with those terms and selection for that low price, it really was an easy call. We also added two new Lovefilm "powered by" sites, Pearl & Dean and Choices UK, both rather lackluster clones which debut at the bottom of the table. We did move WH Smith up a bit--as on the DVD side of the house, we believe they are now the best Lovefilm clone out there, with excellent prices and a 30-day free trial to boot.

20 March 06: Out of nowhere Screenselect has debuted a very large and cheap games rental service; there were no press releases or even announcements on their front page to this effect, but the games are there en masse: 1200+ titles for PS2, 25+ for XBox 360, 700+ for XBox and are also supporting PSP (75+ titles) and GameCube (400+ titles). The hardcore gamer will still want the specialization of one of the top games-only rental companies for their additional gamer resources, news, etc., but for most renters, Screenselect is a top choice. This brings the UK provider sites up to 22.

1 March 06: Re-rankings for March include moving SwapGame down a bit on the basis of the feedback we've had on their service, and in their place, GamesFrenzy (who despite their basic-looking site offer a great service) have moved up to the number one slot in all but the PS2 rankings tables. We've also moved Lovefilm up, which was a tough call as they really only specialize in PS2/PSP titles, but their new 21-day free trial special offer, which includes DVD rentals, weighed heavily in their favour.

1 February 06: We have just done our first of our regular monthly updates/re-ranking, including the addition of a new games rental company, Games Monster bringing the UK total up to 20. In this month's re-ranking, Sainsbury's have also moved up following good customer reviews on our DVD rental pages (and we admittedy had ranked them too low to begin with, being one of the better Lovefilm affiliates), and Games by Post has moved down following reports of poor customer service.

20 December 05: We launched this site by popular demand from visitors to our other site, UK-DVD-Rental-Guide.com; it was a natural extension really, as rental by post for both DVDs and games are two parts of the same industry.