Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I signed up with Gamefly last week as part of my commitment not to buy new releases at full price and save money. But does going the rental route really equal savings? My in depth look should answer this question at the end of my month.

Gamefly trial plan - 16 a month for 2 discs at a time


5/30 - signed up online, I placed Red Faction Guerilla and Ninja Blade in my que


5/31 - no updates so I put an oldie, Godfather 2 in my que


6/1 - thrilled to find out RF2 and Ninja Blade both shipped. It helps if you select the PS3 version.


6/3 - Ninja Blade received. But not in the mood for a ninja game that night. I wanted to play more Oblivion. I usually only have one hour to game after work, gym, cooking supper and cleaning house!


6/4 - received RF2. Ran out of time last night, and could not game.


I'll keep posting updates. I hope to enjoy a long weekend digging deep into these games and getting my money's worth. We'll see.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

You get your money's worth if there are a lot of games you want to play. There are for me now, but I don't want to go through GameFly again.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

A lot of us tried them out a while back at the same time and shared our experiences here.

The only thing I notice so far about your post is that $16 is usually for 1 out. How long is your trial for 2 out?

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

It's a month long trial then I get bumped up to $22 a month. You know Gamefly does these hoping people will forget to cancel when the trial is up. lol

Obviously, my biggest problem with rentals is time pressure. The last time I did the rental route, it ended up being more like trying out demos on a few games instead of acting getting to beat them. Plus, the turn around rate was really slow. Seems to be very much improved now!

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

It can be a very frustrating company to work w/ sometimes, especially if you are used to the quick turn around times from Netflix or Blockbuster. For the most part you can pretty much forget trying to time the releases as frequently either the shipping will take an extra day (or arrive a day earlier) or the release date changes and they'll get things early or late. They don't seem to stock a lot either so if you don't get a new release on that day more than likely it's going to be months before you see it.

With all that said though overall I still really like it. It has saved me a ton of money in titles I would have otherwise purchased and it's given me a chance to try some games I probably otherwise wouldn't have bothered w/. The discounts and sales are nice, along w/ the advertised "reward" plan usually 2-3 times a year they'll send out $10 off coupons (for items over $30 -- of course sometimes they jack the prices up a little before them but usually that has worked in my favor since it'll put a game above the $30 mark so I'm still saving money). I've also used the the "keep it" option several times too. It's nice to be able to get the game, play it, make sure it works and then get a nice/new case from them. Sometimes the timing of all this works out beautifully. For example I got Left 4 Dead on release week, so I know I was the first person to use the game, one of the $10 coupons came in and along w/ my 10% discount I payed something like $35 brand new :D

The best way to work it is to put a bunch of games in your Q that you want to try out and then just go w/ the flow. Try to order things to get the new releases when you can but if you don't, don't sweat it. Once you get into a pattern w/ the 2 out plan what usually works best is to have one game in transit to/from them while you are playing the other one. When the new one comes in ship the old one out. If you don't play that often or have a backlog of games you own then maybe doing the 1 out plan would work best. That way you can work on your backlog while the game is in transit.

Bottom line though is the fact they are really the only people out there doing this right now. I think I tried a place called Trigger Fingers several years ago and they were horrible.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

They have added more shipping centers but shipping is still a hit or miss deal. Most of the time games will take 2 or 3 days (each way) but occasionally they can take up to a week, or will get "lost" until you email them about it then it usually turns up in a day or two.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Thanks the tips. I think I'll play Ninja Blade this weekend and send it back. I will be curious to see how many games I get to play/beat in a month's time. Course if this thread gets more annoying than informative, please let me know.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I've been on the one-game plan for a few months now and it's treated me pretty well. The main problem I've had is that when I choose to buy a new game, whatever game I have rented ends up sitting around for a few weeks (Prince of Persia was unplayed for almost a whole month while I plowed through RE5 and Resistance 2 has been collecting dust for almost 2 weeks since getting inFamous). But I've gotten a chance to play through a number of games that I would have either bought or skipped altogether, so that's a plus. The only real complaint I have is that with the one-game plan, the turnaround time has varied wildly from 4 days to a week and a half. Kind of annoying, but whenever that happens, I just throw on Rock Band 2 to fill the void.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

This pretty much sums it up.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I hate it when I think of the gamefly service in terms of turn around time. However, the one out plan for $16 is $192 a year. If you give games a average price of $40, you make out about even if you rent 5 games a year, 6 if you average the price at $30.

That's no good, because you can always sell games once you are done with them to recoup some of your costs, but if you average a game a month, you make out like a bandit.

My only concern that keeps me from using the service is I don't think I would want to play that many games a year. I'm definitely not that heavy of a gamer anymore. So I could force myself to play more games, just because I can, or just continue to wait and buy the few games I'm interested in when they hit the sweet spot (less than $30) for me.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

6/5- 6/7 - Finally got around to playing the games. Thanks to Ninja Blade crappy save system, I repeated the first mission 3 times. The first main boss was pretty tough for a first boss. Spent about 5 hours gaming.

6/8 - sent Ninja Blade back

6/9 - wow Gamefly has already shipped me a new game, Infamous! If this level of service continues, I am sold.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

That's how they get ya. ;)

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Well I just started with them a week or two ago - a stack of backlogged games that I've been wanting to play but don't really want to pay for (particularly since I don't play online).

Naturally I started with CoD4 (since I've never played it). Think it shipped 5/29. Got it 6/1 - finished on 6/4 (2 evenings playtime - glad I didn't pay $40+ for it), shipped back 6/5. 6/9 received notification of arrival and shipment of my next game CoD WaW - should be here tomorrow.

Not a bad deal as far as I'm concerned. Already have some more FPS games, RE5, Left4Dead, adding some Lego games, and maybe some other older games like Culdcept Saga, etc.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

It probably won't ;)

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

i use fedex lol i bet you guys are like WTF

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

You FedEx back your Gamefly games?

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

i do anything to beat the system

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

You showed them.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

As Richard Hamilton would say "YES SIR"

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I just cancelled my Gamefly sub. I ended up only rotating thru the 4 games I own and usually play everyday and didn't bother with trying to complete ones I rented. Couldn't justify the price to try the few games that interested me.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I've thought about joining for quite some time, but I have a great local video store that rents games. They have this deal where you pay $10/month and everything you rent is half price. Games are $6, so $3 for a game for 5 days isn't too shabby. I end up paying a bit more than Gamefly, but I get what I want when I want it, and I can always snag a game on release day. I'd say I usually rent 8 games a month, so that's $34, but like I said, I get what I want, so it's worth it to me. They also rent BluRay discs at $3.85/day ($1.92 with deal).

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Family Video FTW! :cool: (I'm assuming, as that's the exact deal they do here, and I know they're all over the country.) And they get almost everything on the exact release day. They're pretty amazing.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Yep, that's it. I love 'em, and it seems like the locals don't know Jack about games. It seems like the big new releases hang out on the shelves for a couple days sometimes, and I snagged the AC/DC code about a month after it was on the shelf. I guess I'm about the only one who watches release dates, lol.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

We have three in town and I got the AC/DC code from one (which I gave away on here as I didn't care to have them) and two of my friends got the other two. :lol:

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

6/14 - Received Infamous on Thursday. I was out of town all weekend. So far, I've only managed to beat one level on Red Faction, and my subscription is half over now.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Yeah, you gave it to me, awesome dude. :) I have had great fun playing drums on most of those songs.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Well my membership is winding down. Less than a week left. I've decided not to renew. I sent back Red Faction on Sunday as I grabbed a copy at Gamestop during their B2G1F sale. They just shipped me Velvet Assassin skipping over Ghostbusters in my queue. Here's my review:

Pros - much improvement shipping and receiving. I get a new game within 4 days. Of course, still a great way to try out new games without paying full price. Gamefly dollars gave me $5 dollars off used.



Cons - too expensive, $22 a month, and boy, that month goes by fast. Probably works great for a summer kid with tons of free time, but my gamefly games usually sat unplayed until the weekend. That's $22 bucks just gone that could have been spent on games. Also, if I buy a game brand new and play through at my leisurely pace, I could probably resell it for 40 bucks. Then I would be losing the same $22 bucks for a lot more gaming time.

Other downside is their used game store really stinks. Tons of crappy titles.

Final Thoughts -

It is hard to say if I would spend more money with Gamefly for a year vs buying my games. I get most of my titles through Gamestop's used sales so I'm paying 37 max for new titles. Then again, I just unloaded $150 bucks on that sale last weekend. That's almost 6 months of Gamefly right there!

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Yeah, I just sent a game back that had been sitting here a month, unplayed. Ouch. Just like Netflix though, everything balances out since you could have a month where you are churning through them.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I've rented from gamefly for quite awhile and used to wonder if $22 / month was worth it. This usually occurred when I got busy and didn't have much time to play. At around the end of year 2, I suddenly realized that I hadn't thought about HOW MUCH I WAS SPENDING ON VIDEOS GAMES for a long long time.

So I started to think about that and realized that over a year I spend, with Gamefly, a little over $200. I do keep a game occasionally. So tack on the 2 or 3 games I buy from them a year and call it $300.

At new game prices $300 equals about 5 games. At jeffbase34's $37 a games thats about 8 games. In a year with gamefly I play 25 - 30 games easy.

Of course some I rent and send right back cause I don't like em, but then that to me is priceless in and of itself.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I think that for me is where the biggest savings comes from. There are a ton of games out there I would like to try but I know I'm not going to like all of them, or even want to replay the ones I like, so IMHO Gamefly (or something like it) just makes sense. I have thought about maybe dropping back to the 1 out plan though so that way I have to time play my backlog of games while I'm waiting on Gamefly ;)

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

i think it will work better for you, the only thing is that it lasts like 3 or 4 days depending on where you are located for them to receive the game and then send it out it will take another 3 to 4 days. but other than that, i think its good

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I usually get one back in around 4-5 days but less with fast return since a new one is shipped out as soon as the one I sent back hits the post office. With a two game plan though you don't worry too much since you can play one while another is on the way. as i mentioned, i try to focus on how much i play year around and how much i pay for that. numbers-wise i can't find a better deal right now.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Looks like I am on for another month. I went to cancel, and they offered me another month at 14.95 for 2 games! If the Gamefly store would offer better titles, I would really be sold on the service, but it seems like for a year, the store only carries sub par titles like Fracture.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

If you're in the Philly area, it's safe to use Gamefly again: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/16/ov...y-usps-worker/

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I joined Gamefly a couple of weeks ago to try it out with the 10-day free trial offer. One of my first selections took 7 days to arrive. Not a good first impression!

I'm giving them another month to see if it's worth it. I returned one game 6 days ago and they haven't received it yet, though, so it's not looking good.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Welcome to Gamefly!

That's why I left.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

I have had 13 games in my gameq for about 10 days now and I haven't received a single shipment yet. The top of my screen says: You have no games out. Add titles to your GameQ now!

Are you fucking kidding me?!

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Occasionally I have issues like that, and when I do, I email them to complain and they give me a credit. So if it's been 10 days, you should mention that and they should give you 10 days credit. It sucks, but I've learned to live with it.

I can still get games two days after they come out as long as I setup my queue correctly. This doesn't always work, but it does about 95% of the time. Now if its something thats been out for a short time (Uncharted 2 and Demon's Souls, I'm looking at you!) then the wait is going to be long unfortunately.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

Gamefly has got to be the most bipolar company in existence.

My experience with them was identical, yet there are so many others who swear by them, instead.

Re: Will Gamefly Work for Me?
 

They finally received my return and shipped the first game of my first official month as a member. That was 11 days ago. No game yet.

My first official month as a member will be my last official month as a member. I can buy most of the games in my queue used for less than the cost of the membership, if I'm only going to get about one a month due to turnaround times.