Gamefly Impressions

[Devolver]

I was just wanting to get some feedback on people who have had/still have a Gamefly account, on such topics as their service, delivery speed, accuracy, etc etc

I personally just signed up for the 10 day free trial yesterday evening so I'm not expecting any games to come in for a couple days at least.

So is this service worth having for a pretty avid gamer (own PS3/360, and was thinking of getting the 2-game plan)? And how usually is their availability on newly released games? There's usually 2-3 games that come out a month that I wouldn't mind buying or trying, so I see the price point justified. Both praise and horror stories welcome...just wondering if its worth it in the long run?

[Ragnell]

I signed up when it was still small with only one major factory, I still loved it, i'm sure easy coast shipping is even quicker than before, So far to me service was A+, When BF2 came out on Xbox, i never made it to my house, put in a ticket for a lost game and boom, sent me another game in my que.

I'm probably gonna sign back up with em, reason why i stopped is because I quit working at gamestop and lol no monies

[Norellicus]

Delivery speed and accuracy is pretty good, the main issue is time to play...if you don't cycle through at least 2-3 games in a month, it's not saving you any money over a 5-day rental at your local blockbuster or whatnot.

It's great if you do though, or if you want to try before you buy type thing on a lot of different games. I exercised that aspect for a while and then discovered I had a game sitting on my shelf for 3 weeks that I hadn't touched due to other things occupying my time, so I canceled.

Be aware that they're going to pound you with different pleas to come back to them if you cancel lol. Like one free month if you reactivate and pay at least 3 months, 6 months half price, etc. They eventually give up but it takes time.

[Cheerios]

It's a pretty good service if you own more than 1 console. My cousin owns a 360 and PS3 and he's always getting shit from Gamefly, sometimes even the same game for both systems. Beats paying $50-60 for a game you might only play once. If you do decide you like the game, you can just keep the copy you're given and pay a price for it.

[Ragnell]

a cheaper price

[ArchDizzle]

To give you the other side of the spectrum, I had and recently cancelled a 2 game plan with Gamefly, I also am an avid fan of Netflix and use there service religiously. I own both a PS3 & 360 and planned to use Gamefly for those two consoles as well as some good old PS2 games I never got around to playing/beating. At first I was happy with Gamefly there service/speed was close to what I get with Netflix and was even a little better then I was expecting, considering Netflix is considerably larger. After the first few months I started to grow really aggreivated with Gamefly. I would put a game at the top of my que for 1-4months in advance before it was released and would get shafted every single time upon release date, I tried multiple titles on both platforms and it still always ended up being 10-14 days after release before I saw the title, and sometimes longer. What sucked even more is having to constantly delete my que so they wouldn't ship two other titles and completely screw me out of a new release. There shipping also seemed to get worse. With Netflix I almost always get the disc the day after shipping, with gamefly more often then not I would receive the game 2-3 days after there expected arrival date. I am not saying Netflix is perfect, I have had many occasions (esp. with Blu-Ray seasons) where they have fucked up and sent me disc three of a season I haven't been sent 1 or 2 of but the thing is I would call them and within 5 minutes they would express ship me however many discs I was missing at no extra charge no matter how many movies I currently had out, I have had 5-6 movies out quite a bit on a 3 movie plan. If I were you my decision on getting Gamefly would be based on the following.
1. How many games per month am I going to have sent to me? (if you plan on holding on to 1 or 2 games the entire month, you might as well buy or rent them locally it will be easier/faster and cost about the same)
2. Am I using Gamefly to try and obtain new release titles on or around release day to cut down on having to buy multiple titles at a time and spending too much money? If you are wanting to save money by "trying" out a new title instead of dropping $65 on something that you hate after 20mins then Gamefly is a good choice unless see #3
3. Do you have to have the new title(s) on release date or the day following? If you are the type of person who needs the title as soon as it comes out Gamefly isn't for you, if you have patience and don't mind waiting 3-14days after a title comes out to give it a go then Gamefly should work well.

Sorry for the long rant, I am still pissed at Gamefly over the "Straw that broke the Camels back" They sent me Star Ocean The Last Hope and I actually got it 4 days after release OMG@@!!! I was so excited until I realized they sent me only Disc 2 & 3. I called Gamefly and had to spend an hour on the phone going through a claims process then was told to ship the discs back and after they investigate the situation I would be shipped another copy of the game. . . 2 weeks later it came in the mail, after I had purchased it /yay!. after that I cancelled my membership.

I will say there selection of PS2 RPG's is pretty decent and usually readily available, so if that is something your into it's a nice bonus during those times when there isn't any big titles in your que.

[Eticket]

You have to time shit pretty well to get new releases. I got Bioshock and Fallout 3 from Gamefly on release by timing my previous returns. I ended up just buying Fallout from them as a 'used' game even though I was the only one that ever played it.

Regardless, Gamefly isn't as well designed for new games that you know you'll want to buy anyway. It's an awesome way to try out all the games you thought about playing but didn't want to pay for otherwise.

Plus, they rent DS and PSP games and still have a lot of older gen software available.

They also regularly toss out discounts and coupons towards purchasing used games.

The longest I ever held a game from them was around 4 months. The quickest was 15 minutes. Overall, I figure I've come out ahead pretty well.

[Devolver]

Oh that's a good point. Realistically, whats the time frame I would have to put a game not released yet at the top of my que to be able to day-one-ship it?

To be honest, not being able to get a game right when it comes out isn't going to hurt my feelings too bad, just if I can get it a few weeks later, I would be ok with that.

I really do appreciate all the input so far. I'm just still on the fence about if its worth my time/money or not (Seems like at first it will be, with me renting all kinds of things non-stop, but when the novelty wears off, that's probably when I would need to evaluate the worthwhile-ness of it)

[Eticket]

They send you emails when they receive something from you. So its pretty easy to get the timing down once you return a few things. It just varies on where you are in relation to a distribution center.

[Doombear]

I have used Gamefly for nearly 2 years now.

Having Netflix as well, I kept trying to compare the two and as such was a bit disappointed with the turnaround of GF versus Netflix. Netflix... is FAST. They will usually get my returned disc in 1-2 days and have me my next in 1-2 days. It is getting faster all the time...

Gamefly has a much more sluggish turnaround. My most recent... I put FEAR2 in my mailbox on the 15th of May, got my email stating they had recieved it on the 21st, and got an email this morning (the 26th) stating that they shipped InFAMOUS.

So all in all not TOO bad, especially considering I essentially only had InFAMOUS in my queue along with one other Low Availability game.

On average, IF I have a lot of games in my queue that are 'High Avail." then I see a turnaround of about a week. If I am trying to get a launch game... it can take longer.

All in all, I know that i am saving money in the long run with a one game plan. Blockbuster fees are just getting worse anyway. I have managed to get Bioshock, Mass Effect, GTA IV and a couple other games on release day so that is always nice.

[Ivaden]

Something I noticed with Gamefly, and it may had just been the few times I tried it, but don't be afraid to put one or two Low Availability games in your queue and that's it. Each time I did this for something I really wanted, it was shipped the day after they received a previous game from me. It seemed like if I had more games on my queue they were more strict with even sending out Medium games, because I've also had several times where three or four Medium Availability games were skipped over for another game down in the queue.

It's frustrating and I've let my subscription run out once before but really, I enjoy the service. I just wouldn't expect to get new releases unless you're really paying attention to them. I've had Fallout 3 on my queue since it was released and I've never seen it above Low Availability yet.

One thing I do have to commend Gamefly on is their Keep It prices for some games, and the standard of condition they keep for their games. I've never had a badly scratched disc, and I've even chose to keep a few games at a drastically reduced (at the time) price. And I'm someone who never even thinks about buying new games, but for whatever reason my main concern is the case and the cover and manual condition, and since they don't ship those out and they just keep them at the warehouses, I'm a happy picky pre-owned customer.

[BadKarma]

I love my gamefly, havent bought a game in a while save for Infamous today

[Devolver]

I do appreciate the responses though. I think I'll hang on to the 2 game subscription for 3-4 months to get a real nice swing of things, and how they work. I should be receiving my first game today, so I'll check the mail when I get out of clinical.

One more quick question, on the stock of previous systems games (your ps2 games, GBA's, GC's etc etc) do they send those as fast as the recent-gen titles (that are high availability) , or do they take a bit longer?

[Shojin]

Same speed, just depends if they have it. I usually have quite a few titles on my list, and they ship out the title as soon as they receive my last title every time. (Well, I get the received title email, then a few hours later the email telling me what game they've shipped.)

I have a question though, what are other people's experiences with Fast Return? Out of the 5-6 months I've been a member, they've probably only used it once or twice. Every other time they've had to receive the game before they shipped it out. Do I actually need to go to the post office to drop it off, and ask them to scan it? Would be a much better service if it kicked in every time or at least more often.

[Devolver]

I have a question though, what are other people's experiences with Fast Return? Out of the 5-6 months I've been a member, they've probably only used it once or twice.

From what I've seen on the FAQ's on the site, that's on your P.O to scan it to send to them (laziness I assume). But if you request that service at your P.O for whenever you send a game back, they might start doing to for you.

This was something I was going to go talk to my postmaster about also, so good question.

[Shojin]

Did you ever talk to your postmaster? When I'm done with my next game I'm gonna take it to the post office and see what they say. Gamefly just took 6 days to RECEIVE my last game, and as usual Fast Return didn't kick in, and they've only just sent the next game, so it'll be another 3-4 days before it arrives, so it'll be 10 days or so with no game, so I really want to get this Fast Return thing working otherwise it feels like I'm just wasting money on a monthly subscription.

[Ivaden]

For me, I've only had the Fast Return kick in twice but apparently it took longer that it has for the past few weeks... probably the game came from California or elsewhere other than their Pittsburgh warehouse, which is about an hour away from me. At first I noticed most, if not all, of my games came from California. I guess their Pittsburgh warehouse was going through some kinks or something because I didn't even realize they had a place there until I looked at the website to see what the fuck the Fast Return was because it scared me that it showed I had two games out when I only had the one game plan.

[Devolver]

Did you ever talk to your postmaster?

Said she was going to be in Monday. So I'll have a chance to talk to her then. My local P.O is pretty small though, so I don't see what they couldn't do it for me. I assume the bigger the PO office, the less they would care. But I don't see why they couldn't do it, if requested.

I'll let you know Monday to see if its possible.

[volcanicweather]

Sorry for the Necro, but I'm considering online gaming rental services and was wondering if Gamefly ever got the "fast return" issue sorted out with the post office.

Also are there any competitors to gamefly? Has their service gotten better or worse over the past 6+ months since the OP? I was also considering blockbuster gamepass seeing as I have about 5 blockbuster stores within a 5 mile radius of where I live (including one right on the way home from work), so if anyone has any experience with that it would be helpful too. Thanks.

EDIT: Sorry 1 more question: Did they do anything to resolve the issue of getting games at or near the release date?

[Hitoshura]

Yeah whatever happened to Fast Return? That shit was awesome. I can't believe they don't have that anymore, it made my games literally come the next fucking day.