In a last ditch effort to retain some semblance of relevance, Blockbuster has added games to their Blockbuster by Mail service.  The Cleveland and Seattle "test balloons" were apparently successful, and the service will soon be coming to the entire country.

Members of Blockbuster's Netflix-inspired mail service will be able to mix-and-match games and movies, with memberships starting at $8.95 per month.  Over 3000 games will be in their library at launch.

"The addition of games for our BLOCKBUSTER By Mail customers – from families looking for entertainment experiences they can enjoy together, to serious gamers – is yet another convenient way to access entertainment content from Blockbuster," said a desperate Kevin Lewis, Senior Vice-President of Digital Entertainment. "This enhanced offering supports Blockbuster's multichannel strategy and shows our commitment to being the leading provider of home entertainment content," he pleaded with the general public.

Seriously, though, this is basically the last gasp for the company that pioneered in-home movie viewing.  That's not to say it won't work, though.   Blockbuster's mail service is competitively priced with both Netflix and Gamefly, so the ability to rent both games and movies from the same source seems like something that may draw some customers away from the competition.  The one thing they don't have going for them is Netflix's streaming content, but they do have, despite their recent, rapid decline, extremely high name recognition.  Is it possible that Blockbuster could recapture it's once great market share with this new system?  Absolutely.  Is it likely?  I'm withholding judgement.