To capitalise on this demand, more online and retail stores that offer games and consoles for rent - a practice that is frowned upon by major publishers such as Microsoft and New Era - have sprouted up.

Gamers contacted said high prices are the main reason why they prefer to rent. Some titles can cost as much as $90, and can take as little as three days to complete, they say, making them not worthwhile to buy.

The outfits that rent out games, consoles and accessories - there are at least eight here, up from zero just over a year ago - said business is booming.

For instance, RedSandsGamers, a retail store, has seen membership rise from 300 last December to 500 now.

GamesDotCom, a brick and mortar retail shop in Sengkang, said it saw 10 customers a week when it launched its rental service last August. Now, it gets about 1,000 new rentals a month.

The operator of one blogshop, who did not want to be named, said he is seeing 15 customers a week now, up from four when he first started.

These outfits said the rental services are popular with both casual and hardcore gamers, as well as teens and young working adults with budgets.

'The casual gamers just want to try out the games for a short while, while the hardcore ones are not willing to fork out so much money for a game which they can complete in as little as three days to a week,' said Mr Eddie Lim, 25, owner of GamesDotCom.

He said he gets much of his business from parents, who rent games for their children. 'They don't want to buy too many games for their children, so they rent for short periods instead.'

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.