Redbox is dead, but the machines are somehow holding on

Redbox was a DVD rental service from automated kiosks. Business was good until it wasn’t, and then the company went bankrupt in July of this year. And yet… the machines live on. At least that’s how it is according to the YouTuber [Smokin’ Silicon]who spotted some remaining Redbox kiosks along the way. Even at his local Walmart!

Here’s the thing. Redbox doesn’t have a single big switch that turns off all the machines, and even if there is one, no one turned it on when the company filed for bankruptcy. So when [Smokin’ Silicon] When he got to Walmart, he was able to browse through the movies and even add one to his cart to purchase. However, the attempt to complete the transaction failed – the kiosk eventually reported itself as out of service. That makes sense – you assume that payment processing is the first thing to go down.

However, other Redbox kiosks were different. A kiosk at a Food Lion location was actually still working – and [Smokin’ Silicon] was able to complete the transaction and walk away with a Black Adam disc! On a second trip he was able to take even more with him!

The rest of the video covers Redbox stories and other online posts about the status of the company, software and hardware. Apparently someone on Reddit claimed they had the Redbox Kiosk operating system available. Meanwhile, some users have had difficulty returning their discs as the company now no longer exists. However, [Smokin’ Silicon] was able to return it without any problems. Ultimately, however, he recommends that his viewers get as many DVDs and Blu-Rays out of the machines as possible, because soon they will be gone forever.

The fact is that the companies are large and Kafkaesque, the kiosks are scattered across the country, and so it is unclear if and when they will stop working. When this website was created, a Redbox was something completely different. Video after the break.

[Thanks to Hari Wiguna for the tip!]