Blockbuster quickly ended the practice, and decided to hire third parties to create replacements for any lost or damaged manuals.

[4] Industry observers concluded that the NES's popularity had grown so quickly that the market for Nintendo cartridges was larger than that for all home computer software.

[5][1]: 347 In the same period, the first Blockbuster video rental store opened in Dallas, Texas, founded by David Cook in 1985.

[6] As the company expanded to nearly 20 stores, Waste Management executive John Melk saw this success and convinced his boss, Wayne Huizenga, to invest.

[7] Combining the operational techniques from Waste Management with the business expansion models of Ray Kroc, Melk and Huzienga were able to substantially expand Blockbuster across America.

[2] Blockbuster hoped to gain an edge on their competition by renting Nintendo games at a time when their demand was on the rise.

[15] Nintendo attempted to find compromise legislation, such as limiting game rentals until one year after their initial release, but did not succeed.

[15] One week after the lawsuit commenced, Blockbuster consented to a court order that would suspend the practice of photocopying the game manuals.

[15][16] Blockbuster announced that they had already contacted store managers to stop copying the manuals when they received Nintendo's original letter.

[16] Since video game rentals often led to lost or damaged instruction manuals, Blockbuster announced their plans to find a legal alternative to photocopying.

[18] They eventually chose the latter option,[19] declaring that producing manuals was a waste of resources considering that video games made up only 3% of annual profits.

If film studios have a window of exclusivity in theaters before they decide to offer their work for rental, Sheff concluded that a similar model would be reasonable for games, rather than allowing video-rental stores to buy unlimited copies on the first day of release.

[9] In 1993, Nintendo of America vice president Howard Lincoln criticized the video game rental business.

In 1991, the Taiwanese cartridge-sellers pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit goods in criminal court, leading to a 1993 civil suit where they were ordered to pay $24 million in damages to Nintendo.

This included Nintendo allowing Blockbuster to rent and sell a number of games made exclusive to the rental company's stores.

[28] When Microsoft announced the Xbox One, they initially planned to prevent the console from playing used games through digital rights management technology, but relented after a consumer backlash.