GameFly Download Service Gets Public Beta Rollout [GameFly's Unlimited PC Play Service Gets Its Beta Launch, Offering Up Fairly Wide Array Of Titles For Play]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Tuesday, 20. December 2011 under: Computer/Console Gaming, Internet Highlights

Admittedly, I’m not much of a PC gamer. I’ve been sticking to consoles for some time now for their comparative ease and to prevent the heartbreak of the discovery that my PC is insufficient for the newest games. At least when I get an Xbox 360 game, I know it will work in my current Xbox 360, possibly with a software upgrade but that’s just a download away. But the folks out at GameFly have built a fairly convincing case to come back by way of their unlimited digital download service, which just got rolled out in public beta form.

The service in question, also known as Unlimited PC Play, first wandered into view back in August, and allows subscribers to play several PC titles as part of their current package. There aren’t any additional fees with this, so it’s much like Netflix in the early days, where you got all you could stream alongside your disc rentals. There is also a section for Mac users, but sadly, it’s empty for the time being, with hopefully some titles to follow later. But the PC crowd, meanwhile, will get just over 200 titles available to them, ranging from some big names like Saints Row 2 and proceeding on to more episodic fare like Sam And Max and American McGee’s Grimm.

Considering, though, that GameFly offers at least double that number in Xbox 360 titles, and competitor service GameTap offers up better than three times that number, at last report, it’s pretty safe to say that no one will be joining the service just for the PC gaming, especially since the current word says that GameFly’s not planning any discounted streaming-only access plans in much the same way that Netflix did. Still though, for those either already in or considering joining in for the discs, you might get along pretty well here.

As for me personally, I’d say give it a try for a month, as I was a GameFly subscriber around two years ago, and was rather dissatisfied with the high turnaround times for getting discs sent out both from me and back to me. It’s great that you can sign up for a month, but when it takes the better part of a week to send a disc back and get a new one, the value just seems a bit less than it should be. However, my experience may no longer be typical, especially if they’ve built more processing centers to improve the turnaround time where you are.

But what about you guys? Anyone thinking about joining in on GameFly for their big new streaming system? Or do you have a better place to rent games? No matter what you think, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section below and tell us what you think!