Pretty Gamer

Gamefly goes Digital

This guest article was submitted to us by the magnanimous John Hummel. Check out his YouTube page for his new series “Comparative Gaming 101”.

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Once, there was Gametap. And it was pretty good - it’s Mac support wasn’t that great, but it had plenty of older and even some new games to play. And then - it went away.

During that time, other digital services arose, with the leader being Valve Software’s Steam service, though other competitors such as Green Man Gaming, Gamers Gate, Impulse (which is now owned by Gamestop), and of course EA’s Origin.

And now video game rental service Gamefly has gotten into the mix. After their purchase of digital game store Direct 2 Drive, Gamefly has now announced their own plan to offer computer game rentals.

Computer game rentals aren’t anything new - as mentioned earlier, Gametap was the most famous, until they went out of business. Onlive offers their own unique streaming gaming service where the gamer can stream the game from a remote server so they don’t have to worry about their hardware platform.

But Gamefly’s service looks to be something different. Gamers can purchase and download games like the other stores. But they’ll also be able to download and install computer games and play them as long as their subscribed to the monthly Gamefly rental service - and once you terminate the service, you lose access to the games.

This could be a game changer in the industry. Imagine being able to not just play the demo for the game, but the whole game just to try it out through your computer game rental service. Don’t like it? You’re not out the $50 per game.

Keep an eye out, folks. The digital game distribution battle is just heating up.