GameFly's no longer just an online service, as the company has begun to roll out a physical distribution scheme in the form of the "G-Box," a rental kiosk for Wii, PS3 and 360 games.
GameFly has heretofore been an online-only rental service a la Netflix, but with the debut of The G-Box the company's getting all up in your physical space. The game rental kiosk made its debut at Texas Tech University recently and will start popping up across the States in the future.
It works essentially like those DVD rental kiosks that you always see when you're at the checkout counter of the supermarket - you know, those things with the touch screens that let you rent the latest romantic comedies with a credit card. The G-Box will stock the latest PS3, 360 and Wii games, and charge your Visa/Mastercard/Discover by the day, with rates running at $2.49 a day for PS3/360 games and $1.99 for Wii games. There'll also be a rent-to-own plan. The G-Box won't have due dates or late fees, but if you don't want to get charged $2.50 a day for a copy of LEGO Batman you have no interest in owning, you'll probably want to return something before long.
"The kiosk program is a way to extend the GameFly universe into the physical world," company co-founder Sean Spector said.
Hopefully it'll make it easier to rent new releases, which is often not exactly convenient using GameFly's online distribution, which often seems short on supply when it comes to the latest titles.
File this one under "Things that make me wish I were still in college" next to being able to wear sweatpants 24/7 and having the time to finish JRPGs. Conversely, if you're in college, file it under "things that will drop my GPA by a whole point." If you're not in college yet or never were, well, just file it under more ways to waste your money.
The idea is great, I use to use redbox (dvd rental kiosk) all the time. BUT 2.50$ a day? that 5$ for two days and 17.50$ a week. Where I'm from that's a horrible rip off. The rate redbox had for renting dvds was 1.99 for the first night, (and stayed like that if you returned it before noon) and then 1.00$ each night after (when you reach 27$ you owned it)
NOT to mension redbox if you subscribed to their E-mail will weekly send you a free code, for one free night of movie rental.
I don't know if GF will be offering any promotional deals but thats a steep price to ask for a system that does not offer a refund if your game is messed up or are forced to BUY THE GAME if you lose the little clear case it comes in (the clear case has a barcode on it to tell the kiosk which game it is.
I think the price is a little steep. It might be okay if you have the time to finish the entire game in one day, but I typically need at least a week to finish a short game. I'd need much longer for a larger game like an RPG. Blockbuster, or even Gamefly's regular online rental service would be a better deal for people with limited time to play.
Maybe this will be the passage I need to convince myself to buy a Gamefly subscription, I have a Netflix subscription already. I can not exactly put a reason on it, but renting video games threw mail has never really seemed natural to me.
dadanman: The idea is great, I use to use redbox (dvd rental kiosk) all the time. BUT 2.50$ a day? that 5$ for two days and 17.50$ a week. Where I'm from that's a horrible rip off. The rate redbox had for renting dvds was 1.99 for the first night, (and stayed like that if you returned it before noon) and then 1.00$ each night after (when you reach 27$ you owned it)
NOT to mension redbox if you subscribed to their E-mail will weekly send you a free code, for one free night of movie rental.
I don't know if GF will be offering any promotional deals but thats a steep price to ask for a system that does not offer a refund if your game is messed up or are forced to BUY THE GAME if you lose the little clear case it comes in (the clear case has a barcode on it to tell the kiosk which game it is.
they need to lower that by the day price.
Redbox is $1.00 per night where I live. I think $2.00 a night would be a fair price for the G-box. That just means that you have to either not care about whether or not you finish games, or get games you can finish before it gets too expensive.
Honestly, Gamefly has been better with new releases. I got Killzone 2 within a few days after launch. It looks like they stock up in anticipation of a lot of people Keeping It.
If Wikipedia is wrong on this one, then sorry. I have never been to a GAME as I am located in the United States. Anyways, the article states that GAME is owned by EB Games, which is in turn owned by Gamestop.
If Wikipedia is wrong on this one, then sorry. I have never been to a GAME as I am located in the United States. Anyways, the article states that GAME is owned by EB Games, which is in turn owned by Gamestop.
Seemingly they only own 25%, though I have no idea what that actually means in terms of ownership. So you're basically saying that of the videogame shops in the UK, there is EBGames, who own part of GAME, who own Gamestation? Nice to see there are no monopolies going on...
If Wikipedia is wrong on this one, then sorry. I have never been to a GAME as I am located in the United States. Anyways, the article states that GAME is owned by EB Games, which is in turn owned by Gamestop.
Seemingly they only own 25%, though I have no idea what that actually means in terms of ownership. So you're basically saying that of the videogame shops in the UK, there is EBGames, who own part of GAME, who own Gamestation? Nice to see there are no monopolies going on...
I think article said that they later bought more of the retailers, or just bought out specific storefronts themselves, I'm a little shaky on the details, but EB is involved somewhere.
I think article said that they later bought more of the retailers, or just bought out specific storefronts themselves, I'm a little shaky on the details, but EB is involved somewhere.
I have a gamefly subscription but their shipping time is atrocious. I do hope that thees kiosks will have a way, if not now, soon, for existing subscribers to return and rent games instantly. I know I would take advantage of such a service for sure.
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GameFly Gets Physical With The G-Box
GameFly's no longer just an online service, as the company has begun to roll out a physical distribution scheme in the form of the "G-Box," a rental kiosk for Wii, PS3 and 360 games.
GameFly has heretofore been an online-only rental service a la Netflix, but with the debut of The G-Box the company's getting all up in your physical space. The game rental kiosk made its debut at Texas Tech University recently and will start popping up across the States in the future.
It works essentially like those DVD rental kiosks that you always see when you're at the checkout counter of the supermarket - you know, those things with the touch screens that let you rent the latest romantic comedies with a credit card. The G-Box will stock the latest PS3, 360 and Wii games, and charge your Visa/Mastercard/Discover by the day, with rates running at $2.49 a day for PS3/360 games and $1.99 for Wii games. There'll also be a rent-to-own plan. The G-Box won't have due dates or late fees, but if you don't want to get charged $2.50 a day for a copy of LEGO Batman you have no interest in owning, you'll probably want to return something before long.
"The kiosk program is a way to extend the GameFly universe into the physical world," company co-founder Sean Spector said.
Hopefully it'll make it easier to rent new releases, which is often not exactly convenient using GameFly's online distribution, which often seems short on supply when it comes to the latest titles.
File this one under "Things that make me wish I were still in college" next to being able to wear sweatpants 24/7 and having the time to finish JRPGs. Conversely, if you're in college, file it under "things that will drop my GPA by a whole point." If you're not in college yet or never were, well, just file it under more ways to waste your money.
[Via 1UP]
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