Blockbuster's ongoing attempts to make enough money to pay the rent took an interesting turn last week, when the rental chain announced plans to add games to their online rental service.

Games By Mail, as Blockbuster calls it, will include PS3, 360 and Wii games, although details are a little sketchy as to how deep the catalog will be. For a fee increase of $7.99 a month, members can rent one game out at a time, and that game rental counts against their rental cap. For example, if your plan currently allows you to rent three movies at a time and you decide to rent a game, you'll only be able to get two movies while you have that game. And while Blockbuster Total Access members can return online game rentals to their local Blockbuster (if they can find one), they can only get movies in return. Also, if you want to sign up now you'll probably have to wait a bit. The service is currently being tested out in Cleveland, OH only.

Recent years have not been kind to Blockbuster. Competition from Netflix, Redbox, and video on demand, as well as the industry's move from rental-priced VHS tapes to retail-priced DVDs, has the once-king of rental chains virtually hemorrhaging money. Blockbuster's losses last year were in the hundreds of millions, and they've closed over 300 stores across America in an effort to stay afloat.

Can Blockbuster tear gamers away from GameFly? Can Blockbuster survive long enough to get the first batch of game rentals out? Or is way too little, way too late?

Source: Consumerist