Life with GameFly: Continued Disappointment
A while back I stated that I was giving GameFly a shot in large part due to their low prices and my tendency to play games in infrequent, but longer sittings, leading to completing games in fairly short order, rather than stretched out in small blocks over several months. So how has it been?
Not great. On the plus side, GameFly is cheap in comparison to purchasing full priced games, not that I'm wont to purchase full priced games without some type of incentive like a $20 amazon credit or something of the like, but I think that should likewise go without saying. Renting should necessarily be cheaper than buying, but given that I'm not typically interested in playing games after I'm done with their single player campaigns, this model works for me. Some basic math says that if I even get to play two games a month through GameFly, I'm likely overcoming the cost I would have otherwise incurred. That's the pull with this service, an that largely stands after my time with GameFly. However, after spending a month with the service, it has become very clear that this is not without caveats.
The GameFly "Q" isn't Quite Honest
For anyone familiar with Netflix, the notion of a queue is nothing new. One looks around the library of games on GameFly's website, places games that one is interested in into a list, orders the list in descending interest, and games are then sent to the customer in said order. Well, not quite on the last point.
When you place a game on your list, an "availability" section indicates the likelihood that you will actually have that particular game sent to you. This may say "Medium," "Low," "Very Low," or "Available Now." (There are others, but you get the idea) This should give you an indication of whether or not your game will actually makes its way to you regardless of whether its #1 on your list. The system is understandable, and while not ideal for those wishing to play the latest games, I think part of what needs to be expected when approaching any kind of rental. There are after all limited quantities, and not everyone will be able to have a copy of the latest titles as they come out. When I placed "Dead Space 3" on the top of my list the week preceding its release, I hoped I would receive it, but I did not expect it. Waiting a while to receive the title was acceptable.
Yet there are limits to my patience and understanding on such matters. A month ago, when I signed up for my GameFly account, I played Devil May Cry at the top of my list. The game was coming out at around that time, so I did not expect to receive it even though it was at the top of my list. I later bumped it to number two as Dead Space 3 approached. The problem is that I am now receiving my third title through GameFly, more than a month after Devil May Cry hit shelves to a mediocre reception, good reviews but lackluster sales. I still haven't received the title. Nor have I received Dead Space 3. Nor have I received Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, despite the fact that the title is listed as my #3 and is stated to be "Available." As I stated, that I have not yet received a game the week it comes to retail is not surprising giving the immediate popularity. However, that GameFly continues to fail in delivering me a title even a month after the game has been released seems a serious problem. Entering into the second month and beyond after a game has released, many games begin to enter "sale" territory. At that point, getting a new game, ergo directly supporting publishers and developers, at a substantial discount is often a relatively trivial task. After purchasing such a title, and then reselling it, the savings offered by GameFly are no longer so substantial as originally thought, not to mention you've helped to support developers. How much time should a subscriber to GameFly be willing to wait for a newer title? One month? Two? More?
But that's unfortunately not the worst of it. I have set of games under my top five that fall well outside of what could be considered even a recent release. I never got around to several titles last year, and barring an ability to play newer titles, I would at least be willing to pick up games like Persona 4 Arena or Dragon's Dogma. Both are listed as "Available," so one might assume they are there for your taking. Yet that's not how it happened for me. Persona 4 Arena came in at #6 for me. Dragon's Dogma at #7. Today I received an e-mail stating that Dragon's Dogma had just shipped. Obviously, there was some dissonance between what I believed should have occurred and what GameFly deigned appropriate. If both games were available, what precisely was the point of ranking them if GameFly was simply going to choose whichever title they wanted to send me.
While I can forgive GameFly for not sending popular games in a timely fashion, even if I did rank them at the top of my list, I have decidedly less sympathy for not following the remainder of my "Q" for no apparent reason.
My Most Played Title with GameFly? The Waiting Game
Perhaps Netflix's "DVD's by Mail" model and process spoiled me. Perhaps Amazon's delivery service has created an unrealistic expectation for package speeds. Perhaps I simply ask too much of the world as a whole. Whatever the reason, I can't help but feel GameFly takes far to long to do what they do. The first games I sent back, door-to-door took EIGHT DAYS. That was eight days of a total month in which I was paying for a service but had nothing to show for it. After that eight days was up, I received a game I only sort-of wanted to play (see the above complaint).
I don't pretend to know what voodoo Netflix managed to work with the US Postal Service, nor do I know how Amazon manages to ship things in such ridiculously short periods of time, but I do know these timeframes are extremely satisfying. GameFly's return and send process has thus far been anything but. If GameFly needs to make similar deals with the US Postal Service, then they should do it, because in my mind, eight days is far too long to wait for another game, particularly if you aren't even getting the one you really want to play.
Looking to the future, with the US Postal Service discontinuing Saturday delivery, these wait periods are likely to only get longer. This kind of service seriously decreases my perceived value of the service seeing as it makes it likely I would at the most get two games a month, and only if I played them religiously after receiving them.
Current Conclusion
I'll let my GameFly subscription play out for just a bit longer, but I have a strong inkling I'll be canceling it shortly. It's a shame because the service sounded so promising, but with long delays between titles and seemingly never getting the game I actually want to be playing, the value seems far less than I initially considered.
Who knows though, even if the service had been great, in a few months the whole business model may be a moot point. When new consoles with potential anti-used game technology hit shelves, GameFly may find that their poor service is the least of their worries.