UPDATE: The MSNBC article is poorly written in that while it says Blockbuster is getting out of the game world, the company is apparently not really doing so.  It's selling off its gaming subsidiaries, but keeping the familiar in-store game rentals.  Boo to MSNBC for not being clearer on that.

Hard times have fallen on Blockbuster Video, the VHS DVD rental business that also did a fair bit of business in renting video games.  From the sound of things in this MSNBC story, the company is giving up on the game business by selling off its Rhino Video Games branch to GameStop, cutting back on Game Rush store-within-a-store operations, and (according to the headline but not in the actual article text) abandoning game rentals in general.

The impact of this could be huge to younger gamers out there with a Blockbuster account piggybacking on Mom and Dad's account.  As a teen I had my own Blockbuster rental card that was tied to my parents' registration, meaning that when I had $7 to burn I could rent a game for five days whenever I wanted.  However, these days I find it much more economical to just use a rent-by-mail service such as GameFly.  With NetFlix chomping at Blockbuster's movie rentals and GameFly and the like having chewed at the game rentals, I can't help but wonder what the future brings for the business.

(via NeoGAF)