^GameFly Thursday, March 03, 2005

I started a little experiment recently with a company called GameFly. Now, I have heard people singing the praises of Netflix for some time now, and GameFly is the first company I've encountered to try to apply the same model to video games. Since I love games, it seems like a perfect fit.

I think the model is a perfect fit for video games because a game's lifetime is sort of limited. The average video game obsession lasts about a month, for me. Maybe a few months, but rarely more than 6 (maybe Madden and Starcraft, but that's about it for me). The fact that you can cycle out old games for new games makes sense. And you have all the time you need.

I have also been guilty of shelling out $60 impulsively on a game that looks cool, only for it to turn out to be Battle Arena Toshinden 3. Yikes. Having the flexibility to try a game for no risk means I will be able to play more different games, and that's the biggest appeal of the GameFly/Netflix model for me.

The problem is, unfortunately, that I think GameFly's service is overpriced. For $25 a month you get any two games out at a time. Or, for the same amount of money (roughly), you could buy a new game every other month, and not have a recurring fee that 3-month period when you're not playing as many video games because you're busy at work or that 6-month period when nothing good is coming out.

I'm paying for it primarily for the freedom-of-experimentation aspect of it, but I know I'm getting robbed.