The rationale I've heard for this is that there's a small but material portion of customers who would return every game after they finish playing it. This is le

The rationale I've heard for this is that there's a small but material portion of customers who would return every game after they finish playing it. This is less of a problem with physical goods (like your Costco example), where someone usually wants longer-term use out of the durable goods they buy. It's interesting to wonder what the net outcome would be if they ate that cost in exchange for making customers feel safe taking a chance on more games.