GameFly acquires PC digital distributor Direct2Drive

by Shack Staff, May 25, 2011 6:00am PDT
Related Topics – Business, GameFly, Direct2Drive

Shacknews parent company GameFly announced that it has acquired PC game digital distributor Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment. The deal adds D2D's library of over 3,000 PC and Mac titles available for purchase and download digitally to the extensive list of video games available for rent from the GameFly's subscription service.

GameFly chief executive officer Dave Hodess told Shacknews that for the immediate future there will be no changes to either service. Though down the line, customers of both services can expect to see some new options.

"We have some ideas but need to get the D2D team onboard and benefit from their experience. We will let our customers know as soon as we are ready to roll them out," Hodess said. Though he didn't commit to any sort of hard timetable, Hodess did say that he expected six months would be a fair estimate of when the first changes might start to be seen.

As for why GameFly looked to add D2D to the company, Hodess explained that the company knows its console game subscribers are heavy PC gamers as well, so offering a combination of the two makes a lot of sense. As for whether adding D2D was a prelude to offering PC games for rental as well, Hodess said "We know that consumers are interested in PC game rentals, so we will investigate this idea thoroughly."

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but as part of the deal, IGN will acquire a minority stake in GameFly. IGN parent News Corporation will also take an observer seat on GameFly's board but neither will effect the operation of GameFly.


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