Gamefly Impressions

[Souj]

I should just cancel Gamefly... or at least change from 2 games to 1. Not because of a terrible experience with them, but because I'm apparently in a gaming slump. Which is kind of odd considering for the last month just about the only game I've played has been Demon's Souls. 4 times now I've gotten games, played them for about 1-2 hours then decided I didn't like them or want to bother playing them so I immediately return them. Just sent back Mafia 2 and Nier yesterday, I know I didn't give them much of a chance. Today I got an email telling me they sent me Enslaved and I'm already wondering why I had that on my Queue.

and as far as people's delivery times goes, like I just said, I put my games in the mail box just yesterday and today they shipped a game.

[Doombear]

I truly think that my mail carrier is the devil. She seems to really go out of her way to project that that may be the case at least... I wonder if you just are lucky enough to have the Fast Return kick in every time and my PO just doesn't scan them.

Souj, I really liked Enslaved, so don't fret just yet. I do hear you though about the slump. I would say I have been in one for most of the year so far. I just don't have the patience I used to and have become MORE of a completionist... so fun gets turned into work. Sad. Just how jaded I am these days maybe. I WISH i had your turnaround times though.

[Callisto]

I should just cancel Gamefly... or at least change from 2 games to 1. Not because of a terrible experience with them, but because I'm apparently in a gaming slump. Which is kind of odd considering for the last month just about the only game I've played has been Demon's Souls. 4 times now I've gotten games, played them for about 1-2 hours then decided I didn't like them or want to bother playing them so I immediately return them. Just sent back Mafia 2 and Nier yesterday, I know I didn't give them much of a chance. Today I got an email telling me they sent me Enslaved and I'm already wondering why I had that on my Queue.

and as far as people's delivery times goes, like I just said, I put my games in the mail box just yesterday and today they shipped a game.

You're probably getting my copy of Enslaved I just sent back, hopefully I get your Nier, lol. I enjoyed Enslaved alot but ymmv and whatnot.

[Dryr]

Not only have I been in a slump, but the few games I have actually been wanting to play for a long time (enslaved, heavy rain, uncharted 2, motor storm apoc, every game I've gotten except mass effect 2) have been so disappointing that they were one-day rentals for me. So, with my one-day rentals, waiting up to 10 days to get my next game is a fail concept. Also, I'm hitting a bit of a wall on games I'm even interested in playing. I have top spin 4, the latest lego star wars and singularity at the top of my queue outside soon-to-be released stuff.

[Callisto]

The one-day deal is a developers issue more than a Gamefly one, and if anything it puts an even greater light on the upsides to using this type of service. Yeah it sucks to wait 10 days and then get a game that only lasts you 10 hours, but nowhere near as much as it sucks to pay $60 for a copy of it and have the same result.

[Dryr]

it sucks to wait 10 days and then get a game that only lasts you 10 hours

My problem is, I don't even play them through. I put maybe an hour or two into them before I've had enough of waiting for them to be fun so I ship them back the next day; ; It doesn't help that I can stack the top of my queue with racing games because that's what I feel like playing, then get a platformer, rpg or other genre instead because they never have stuff avail.

If ps3 allowed mouse/keyboard or gamefly had pc games, then I would have another couple of months worth of games to rent...

[Dryr]

Speak of the devil...

Mail-order game disc renter GameFly Inc. has announced that it will acquire Direct2Drive, the PC game digital distributor service owned by News Corp. subsidiary IGN Entertainment. The announcement, first reported by Gamefly-owned gaming news site Shacknews, confirms rumors about the acquisition that surfaced earlier in the week.

The two companies seem like a reasonable fit. GameFly is essentially the Netflix of video games, renting out discs for game consoles through the mail. Direct2Drive is a competitor to Valve Software's market-dominating Steam PC gaming download service. Market data on digital distribution services is scarce since the companies don't share customer data with the public. An April 2010 estimate from the site Deals4downloads.com estimated that Direct2Drive was the No. 2 player at the time, with 17 percent of the market, behind Steam's 70 percent share. The Gamefly acquisition also follows game retailer GameStop's recent purchase of Impulse, the digital distribution service formerly owned by Stardock Corp., which Deals4downloads estimated had 1 percent of the market.

Also, neither Gamefly nor Direct2Drive offers game-streaming services, like those of cloud-gaming companies OnLive and Gaikai, so for the moment the Netflix analogy only goes so far. Providing some rationale for the deal, GameFly CEO Dave Hodess told ShackNews, "We know that consumers are interested in PC game rentals, so we will investigate this idea thoroughly."

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. A GameFly press release (PDF) indicated that IGN will retain a minority equity stake in GameFly, and News Corp. will take an observer seat on GameFly's board of directors.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/gamefly-acquire...#ixzz1NOO2i3i9

http://news.cnet.com/gamefly-acquire...?tag=cnetRiver

[Devolver]

Yeah, Ask and yee shall receive. It would be amazing if they could incorporate this into their game renting model.

[fren.]

Shit sucked. I live in Jersey, the nearest shipping center is in PA. Three hours away, maybe four.

First game took seven days to get. I sent it back because the game wouldn't load and I wanted something else entirely. Took three days for them to get it, another two days to pick a fucking game, and another five days to get a new one. I quickly lost interest in that game also, sent that back and it took nine days for them to get the game.

None of the games were at the top of my queue so I mostly got shit that I didn't really have much interest in. I understand it's not like Netflix where you use it for a day and send it out the next, but the service was total ass.

Blockbuster has a pretty decent plan (2/$15) and they have in-store exchange (5 a month) but the selection is minimal.

[Pikarya]

GF is shit. When I gave them as chance it was some stupid 7-day trial. Awesome part, it took them 6 days to send 2 Wii discs (they were not on low availability, in stock) via USPS 300 miles away. As soon as I got the discs I had to postmark them the next morning in the mail to send back or I would've gotten charged.

So yeah, fuck GF. I'd rather just pirate my shit if I'm absolutely desperate.

[Souj]

So yeah, fuck GF. I'd rather just pirate my shit if I'm absolutely desperate.

Fuck yeah, pirate games! That'll show Gamefly!

why would you use a rental service that sends games through snail mail if you were even the tiniest bit desperate to play a game?

[Brill Weave]

I'll echo the sentiment if you don't use it a lot you're basically money. Otherwise they are pretty fast getting games out east here. I've never had any issues with damaged games or games not arriving. I like it.

[Pikarya]

Fuck yeah, pirate games! That'll show Gamefly!

why would you use a rental service that sends games through snail mail if you were even the tiniest bit desperate to play a game?

7-day trial, if its shit then I'm avoiding it period. Trial shouldn't begin till the postmaster marks and delivers the items in question. The system in general is garbage.

[Callisto]

My turnaround times are 3 days tops either direction lol

[Souj]

Too bad I decided not to mail back my 2 games before the weekend. By the time I send them back, everything will be "Low" again.

[fren.]

According to the rep I spoke with over the phone, when it says "Available now" it's not specifically referring to your primary shipping center, but whatever center has the game currently available. Essentially, it's pretty meaningless.

[Souj]

I assume everyone else with an email address and a gamefly account already got this, but thought I'd post it here anyways.

For almost a decade, GameFly has brought you the #1 by-mail game rental service in the U.S. This holiday season, our all-new digital client will give you unprecedented flexibility to choose how you want to play, rent, and buy video games.

Whether renting discs by mail, downloading from over 1,500 Windows/Mac games for sale, pre-ordering new console and downloadable releases, or buying used games - the client manages it all. And it brings it all together in a slick new interface that also gives you up-to-the-minute gaming news, HD videos and screens, a social feed to connect with other gamers, and the ability to manage your library across all gaming platforms, and share it with your friends.

The best part for GameFly members? Unlimited PC Play , which will allow active members to download and play as many Windows/Mac games they want from a large (and growing) selection of titles at no extra cost with your monthly membership.

To see the GameFly client in action, check out our sneak-peek trailer now. You can also request a Beta invite before the client launches this holiday season in the U.S and U.K.

Renting PC games sounds pretty awesome.
I might have to start watching my bandwidth cap

[Eticket]

I saw something about that but hadn't really looked into it. That's intriguing.

[Dryr]

If this is a solid DL and install, on-demand pc rental (no queues or "no available copies") and the selection has at least as many AAA titles as steam, this will make me subscribe again and stay subscribed for a looong time.

But, a lot of publishers will most likely pull their games off of it or, in the very least, prevent multiplayer usage (no multi isn't a deal-breaker for me).