I'm not sure I'm lovin' the idea of a zero media world. I've always been fond of having my discs but then again when I found out I could buy music for cheaper, from my PC, from a selection of albums beyond any physical store's capacity, and I could have it now - well I done started buying music on-line (but only drm-free amazon mp3s)

I have noticed that trying to make that transition of buying games is a little more difficult. Buying games here has had the unpleasant side effect of inflating my Internet bill. Its only been slight but then I haven't downloaded multiple 3Gig games either.

As for that part about wondering if Sony and MS would try and force you to rebuy games, you bet their ass they would if they could get away with it., though its very likely that competition and outcry would temper any serious efforts into such a practice. Maybe limiting things to say "transfer fees." They have been salivating at the idea of killing second hand sales and its doubtful they wouldn't readily exploit the control they would get if they could actually pull it off.

lol!

I was pissed about the Impulse sale because I actually was using them quite a bit, though just before the sale went public I had noticed a perceivable decline in their quality of operations.

D2D kinda comes in at a tie between them and GamersGate for me, D2D's regular prices suck dog shit but their sales are pretty good, while GamersGate has generally got better (or at least equal to) prices than D2D their catalog hasn't got as many titles.

If gamefly fixes the problem of all D2D games being uniformly $10 over priced (for what they are actually worth) but doesn't dick with anything else, then I'll probably switch over to making D2D my primary shop.

... otherwise It's GamersGate.

Well, there's a reason they use the term "subscription". There's no obligation to continue a service that someone's subscribed to.

Crap i had pre ordered saints row 3 a few days before the rumors started i hope this buy out dosent effect D2D to much. I have a few games i have bought with them over the years not many games at release as someone pointed out they do seen to be more expensive but their sailes where pretty good.

Lets hope this buy out improves the service if not GG and Steam will be the only 2 viable places for new games.

I bought Airstrike 3D II Gulf Thunder from them last week for $2. It was an all right experience. They have 60 minute free trials for lots of their casual games, so that's pretty useful. Kept me from losing $2 on Cloning Clyde which would CTD on startup.

Unlike IGN, Gamespot isn't owned by Rupert Murdoch. So they don't have anything like the funding.

I would like to think that IGN Store is a way of ensuring that D2D customers aren't screwed over by this transaction, but like I said, it's a Rupert Murdoch company...

I heard that News International is going to acquire UGO, merge it with IGN and spin off the combined company into its own entity.

What are they going to call it? uGoing?

Probably just IGN Entertainment.

I don't know about GameFly. I've only researched them briefly. They got policy similar to steam. But kudus to GameFly for stating it more clearly: That little disclaimer removes all consumer recourse. If they manage 'software usage licenses' like steam does, then I've no interest in them. So i'm not bothering to research further, at this time.



Gamefly is however, one of a few companies that I think is situated to pull off a new sales model.... The leasing of net connected burning devices which allow customers to walk out of a store with a CD/DVD copy of a digitally distributed game. A similar concept to the RedBox kiosks. But with games to own, not movies to rent.

Publishers appear to be moving towards digital releases. This may suit developers because access to their games won't be limited by the old 'shelf space' paradigm. Gamers are happy because more games are available. ++ But for some consumers like me, we don't trust in schemes that give control of our media usage licenses to a third party.... like steam. I've been burnt by digital music, and had my digital game account sold-out to another company (Impulse >>> gamestop). I'm what I call an ESD Timid. I like the benefits of Electronic Software Distribution. But I don't trust in my ownership of digital media unless I can burn a hardcopy backup (once reason I embrace GOG). Some people have privacy and security concerns... yet will use their credit and debit cards in local stores. Other ESD Timids suffer from bandwidth caps. They don't have the bandwidth to wantonly download any game that strikes their fancy. Some people just don't have the net; either they can't afford it, don't want it, or can't get it. Other ESD Timids may have other reasons.

The ESD Timid population is in need of a middleman to download, then burn a copy for them. Customer walks into store and locates the GameBox. They make their selection, then swipes their credit/debit card. They wait a moment then out pops a jacketed hard copy. Using current technology, graphic images could be burned onto the CD/DVD just like it's done with retail copies. There are other considerations and possibilities, along with challenges and solutions. But that's the gist of it.

I'd imagine that IGN Store didn't materialise until after the buyout negotiations began. These things take time and reskinning your old store to look like a new one doesn't take nearly as long.

But yes, definitely profit.

You left out a step...
1) Create new company exactly like old company.
2) Sell old company.
3) ???
4) Profits!

It just seems weird. Why did Gamefly buy it if it didn't remove a competitor?

This is why there's often an anti-competition clause in contracts stopping the people you're buying out from immediately starting up the same kind of business again. But I guess nobody gets to do that to Murdoch.

I think that the main reason they bought it was for the name and how well established it is now. There is also the advantage of the number of publishers that D2D has a long established relationship with.

I think what Gamefly was interested in was the actual catalog, not the DD store front.

setting up a new storefront and then having to negotiate with every publisher out there is a pain in the ass, buying a pre-existing store front with all it's catalog included isn't.

Gamespy wanted access to the D2D catalog but didn't want to merge with IGN, however IGN still wanted to stay in the DD market, so IGN cloned D2D then sold the old store (with it's included brand recognition) to Gamefly for a shit pot of money.

as far as why Gamefly would want to do all this in the first place: Gamestop not only bought Impulse, they also bought an On-Leash style streaming game provider with the intention of combinging the to to set up a digital rental/sale service. Gamefly is just stepping up to the competition of having another competitor in their indirect game rental market.

I'd be real surprised if Gamefly doesn't buy or plop out it's own On-Lease service in the immediate future, that is "if they don't set up a Steam style castration ... err ... "client" service" first.