GameFly Set To Offer Digital Download Service

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Big news for gaming buffs today as the folks out at GameFly have announced that they’re planning to roll out a digital download service for their games to supplement their existing disc-based service.

The digital download service is slated to be geared toward Windows and Mac machines only (which is pretty much all that could be done, really), and will start rolling the service out beginning with a closed beta for attendees of a live event in Los Angeles starting September 8th. Meanwhile, for the rest of you out there who want to get in on this, you’ll be waiting until the end of the year, or by “the holidays”, as is currently projected.

This is something of a departure from GameFly’s original model, but considering their recent acquisition of Direct2Drive, it actually makes quite a bit of sense. They’ve got the games thanks to that acquisition, so it only makes sense that they should use them.

This is part of a larger projection that says brick and mortar game stores are on the way out, as well as disc media, a projection that has been hotly debated ever since it was first projected, and has a variety of prominent supporters and detractors.

Personally, I’m one of the detractors, at least on a limited basis. Oh, I think that disc-based media will be on the outs at some point, but I don’t think we’re anywhere near that point just yet. The problem is that the streaming model for entertainment seems to assume certain things, things that are simply not in place yet, like ubiquitous high-speed internet access over the entire country without bandwidth caps. Get that in place, and then we can talk about dumping the disc. But without that in place, you’re going to see large portions of the country–not to mention large amounts of consumer dollars–that get literally ignored in the process.

So what do you guys think here? Is GameFly’s streaming offer a nice supplement to the disc gaming market? Or is it the beginning of the end for disc media of any sort? Either way, we want to hear from you! So hit the comments section and tell us what you think!