GameFly To Offer Downloadable Game Rentals This Fall

GameFly continues to impersonate Netflix. The videogame rental service, which has long followed the Netflix disc-by-mail delivery model, recently announced plans to emulate Netflix’s Instant Streaming service by offering PC games for download at no additional cost to subscribers.

GameFly’s announcement comes almost three months after its acquisition of digital distribution service Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment. Direct2Drive’s infrastructure should allow GameFly to meet the storage and bandwidth demands of “Unlimited PC Play”.

The new digital client will launch this fall, beginning with a closed beta on September 8, 2011. It will offer GameFly subscribers a variety of tools to manage their collection, but the killer feature is the ability for members  to “download and play as many Windows/Mac games as they want, from a large and ever-growing collection of titles.”

“It’s kind of like a Spotify or Rhapsody or a Napster,” co-founder Sean Spector told USA Today on Tuesday. “You have access to the content as long as you a subscriber, but when you are no longer a member, the content then disappears.” The service will begin with over 100 available titles, and Spector is optimistic that more aren’t far behind, adding, "We are in discussion with all the major publishers.”

GameFly’s “Unlimited PC Play” most closely resembles GameTap, which offers roughly 600 games and survives largely on the appeal of its nostalgia offerings. To gain any traction, GameFly’s service will need to offer new games from major franchises like Call of Duty and Mass Effect. If publishers say no, it’s bound to go the way of the Sega Channel.

Source: PR Newswire