GameFly acquires PC digital distributor Direct2Drive

Shacknews parent company GameFly announced that it has acquired PC game digital distributor Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment.

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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.

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group. 

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 25, 2011 6:00 AM

    Shack Staff posted a new article, GameFly acquires PC digital distributor Direct2Drive.

    Shacknews parent company GameFly announced that it has acquired PC game digital distributor Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment.

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 6:06 AM

      now steam just needs to buy gamefly..... oh wait

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      May 25, 2011 6:07 AM

      How long before Steam talk is banned?

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      May 25, 2011 6:09 AM

      I was going to make. Witty comment along the lines of "is this why my posts about how great steam is are getting nuked" but apparently everyone else on the shack already thought of that.

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        May 25, 2011 6:12 AM

        lololol did you hear the one about internet censorship!!!!

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      May 25, 2011 6:11 AM

      very nice now lets see some d2d discounts for Mercury :D

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        May 25, 2011 7:25 AM

        Never gonna happen. I really should cancel Mercury, it's worthless these days. :(

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      May 25, 2011 7:26 AM

      This isn't a bad thing since IGN's days are numbered. However I have a ton of stuff on D2D I haven't played yet. Guess i better grab them incase of some future change.

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      May 25, 2011 7:29 AM

      Woaaaaaaaaah!

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 7:37 AM

      Cool. Lots of opportunity to make it a helluva lot better

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 7:39 AM

      Cool, incoming chatty member only super discounts!!! WOOOO!!

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 7:49 AM

        Every time we have to nuke a post it adds 5% to your orders. A 30 minute ban adds 20%, an week get 50, and a permaban makes everything 100% more expensive. WE HOLD THE POWER OF GODS.

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 7:43 AM

      [deleted]

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      May 25, 2011 7:47 AM

      Woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 7:48 AM

      That is crazy. Any Mercury discounts? *cough*

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      May 25, 2011 7:50 AM

      It is nice that they are reaching out to the PC gamers among us

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      May 25, 2011 7:56 AM

      I have a question: Since my Direct2drive log in is my ign log in, am i going to have any issues when the ownership officially changes?

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 7:58 AM

      Does this mean that GameFly will start having PC game news?

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      May 25, 2011 8:22 AM

      the problem right now with pc game rental is the amount of games that need serial codes to be playable anymore. It gets worse when you move to bigger titles like starcraft 2 and EA titles where it is locked to an online social account or locked out of "dlc."

      Anyone thinking they might pick up onlive next for pc rental duties? It would fit them quite well I would imagine.

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        May 25, 2011 11:18 AM

        That sir, is some quality thinking. Maybe Gaikai instead of Online? Gaikai added some pretty famous gaming folk recently, so you might be on to something here. I applaud your reasoning.

        I would not worry about serial codes. Certain GFWL demos (Crash Time 4 comes to mind) have a specific DEMO serial, so the ability to code in a timebased/rental serial is not that far of a technical leap. As for DLC, we have already seen games like Naruto, Crackdown, Fable II-III, and Dead Rising 2 have "trial" versions of DLC for free download that allowed non-purchasers to play with purchasers. You could see something close to that as well.

        Good thinking however, and a topic worth fleshing out.

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 9:00 AM

      Bigger news: IGN acquires minority stake in GameFly, board of directors seat.

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 9:05 AM

        [deleted]

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          May 25, 2011 9:08 AM

          Also remember that IGN recently bought up UGO. Remember UGO? The "Save the Shack!" days?

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 9:09 AM

        Wuuuuuugh.

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 9:12 AM

        Hooray, McGriddles Shack incoming!

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 9:16 AM

        link to release or anything? This is troubling :/

        • reply
          May 25, 2011 9:44 AM

          How is that troubling? That's pretty common in purchases.

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              May 25, 2011 10:10 AM

              It's a minority share and a board of director's seat. They didn't cede creative control.

              • reply
                May 25, 2011 10:22 AM

                Not yet...

                Consider other acquisition ventures by IGN and News Corporation.

                • reply
                  May 25, 2011 10:29 AM

                  do you ever even try to consider the bright side of things? :(

                  • reply
                    May 25, 2011 12:14 PM

                    "It's not safe to hope for the best without preparing for the worst."

                    As a general rule, the things I like are constantly under assault by people with ulterior motives.

                    • reply
                      May 25, 2011 12:28 PM

                      I can understand that rule but you almost always seem to take the negative side of things. Try looking for the bright side sometimes.

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                        May 25, 2011 1:19 PM

                        Sorry, I've been backstabbed too many times to do that anymore. Most good things in my life are a result of me having direct control over something. Sometimes I get a pleasany surprise, but that's much more rare these days.

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                May 25, 2011 11:20 AM

                You never do that unless you have big plans in the future. Come on.

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                  May 25, 2011 12:49 PM

                  Jon Rubenstein joined Amazon's board a few months ago. IS HP TAKING OVER AMAZON?!

            • reply
              May 25, 2011 10:33 AM

              not like the shack hasn't been all whored up for Shogun 2 or anything like that

        • reply
          May 25, 2011 9:50 AM

          it says it in the shacknews article

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        May 25, 2011 9:54 AM

        so by the chatty theory above, this means that all negative mention of FoxNews is now bannable

        • reply
          May 25, 2011 9:56 AM

          I'm looking forward to the Page 3 girls of The Sun doing columns.

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 10:14 AM

        woohoo, sigs incoming.

      • reply
        May 25, 2011 11:41 AM

        That is bad news.

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 9:43 AM

      i would like to be able to get my gamefly loyalty discout and rewards applied to d2d purchases.

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 9:53 AM

      Is Gamefly still doing their IPO? I haven't heard anything about it in a fairly long time.

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        May 25, 2011 10:25 AM

        yeah, it would be a good time to do it now since tech seems to be massively overvalued lately

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 11:12 AM

      /TROLL MODE ON

      This Is an interesting development here. This place has been pro-Steam (and that is me being kind...) for a while now. Who here remembers a certain morning discussion write up about their love for the Steam icon in their system tray (*RAISES HAND*)? Or the same writer of that purposely altering the tone of Capcom's quote from Sven when Dead Rising 2 PC was announced using GFWL (*RAISIES HAND*)? Or the outcry for a lack of a Bulletstorm PC demo but when Portal 2 PC did not have a demo there was only CRICKETS (*RAISES HAND*)?

      So, does that mean on Weekend Confirmed this week, Garnett will suggest that D2D "cede to market to Steam" like he did back in Episode 10 (11?) with GFWL? I mean, it would be the only sane thing to do, right? Steam is the bestest most awesomeest thing since oxygen according to some, so might as well get the apologists in line...

      /TROLL MODE OFF

      But I will say one thing in all seriousness - PC game rentals might be the one thing that brings Steam back to earth. Why pay $5 for something you can not resell when that same $5 (or $3/2 rentals for $5) might let you rent the game instead? That way, if you think it sucks, you are not stuck with it. I think it is time for something like that.

      Either that, or every D2D download is going to offer in-game hats from this point forward. EXCITING!

      The place that signs the staff paychecks is now going to be a direct competitor to Steam in some form.

      This is going to be worth keeping an eye on for sure... *NINJA VANISH*

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 12:11 PM

      [deleted]

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      May 25, 2011 12:20 PM

      I hope we still get the "Shack PSA - Weekend Digital PC Deals" posts, I LOVE those!!!

    • reply
      May 25, 2011 12:27 PM

      [deleted]

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      May 25, 2011 12:31 PM

      huh. this should be interesting to say the least.

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      May 26, 2011 12:31 AM

      hopefully the service doesn't go down the pooper.

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      May 26, 2011 6:26 AM

      this is exactly what news corporation wants ,... an observer , which is a SPY

      there's no good attack without scouting

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