Gamefly Free Trial. Rent Before You Buy.

May 3, 2011 GameFly No comments

In the world of video games, the question that arises most often after is it any good, is whether to rent or buy. While there are some valid reasons to buy video games, there can be many more pros to renting it, at least initially. When new games were twenty-five to thirty dollars, the question was a bit harder to answer, but with many new and popular games for Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 hitting sixty dollars, renting becomes a much better deal.

The reasons for renting over buying are many. First, how many times have you purchased a new game only to lose interest quickly or decide it isn’t what you thought after a few hours? Now you have a game you don’t like that can only be resold for a fraction of what you paid. If you rented, you would only be out a few bucks.

Second, how long does it take to complete a game? Many games can be mastered in 10-15 hours. Even a complicated RPG can be knocked out in a weekend of intense playing. Why pay full price for something you are only going to use for a few days?

Third, there is just more bang for the buck. How many games could you rent for the price of one full price purchase? Now think of a weekend with all those games to choose from rather than slogging through a single title.

Finally, it is a cheap way to try before you buy. Even if you think you would like to own the game for replay value or whatever reason, the few dollars invested in renting it first could save you many times that in wasted money if you discover too late that owning the game isn’t worth it.

 

GameFly is among the leading online video game rental site. With more than 7,000 titles, GameFly offers the widest selection and availability of games for the Playstation 3, Playstation 2, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS and GameBoy Advance without the hassle of due dates or late fees.

GameFly members can rent two games at a time and keep them for as long as they like. Members manage their GameQ online and receive games directly from the US Postal Service via first class mail. Currently all games ship from our Los Angeles, CA, Pittsburgh, PA, Tampa, FL and Austin, TX facilities. GameFly is also the best source for high quality, used video games at exceptional prices.






Game Testers Academy

January 13, 2012 Video Game News One comment

If you are a hard-core gamer like me and if you are interested in learning that how you can make money by playing video games then Game Testers Academy is for you!

Being a video game tester must be the holy grail of careers. Imagine working from home, making your own schedule and getting paid — all while playing video games! It’s easy to see why it’s such a sought-after job.

As a game tester you get:

  • FREE video games (that you get to keep after testing)
  • Exclusive access to unreleased titles
  • Invitations to gaming expos, developer interviews, and conventions
  • The ability to boast about your job to jealous friends!



GameStop hands out $50 gift cards after pulling free OnLive game coupons

August 28, 2011 Video Game News No comments

Leading Game retailer GameStop is now handing out $50 gift cards as an apology to gamers who bought PC copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution after the retailer pulled coupons from the boxes for free versions of the game from cloud gaming service OnLive.

Gamers who bought those copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will receive a $50 gift card from GameStop and a two-for-one deal on used games as part of the arrangement. The retailer is backpedaling after saying it did not want to promote competition from OnLive, since the company is reportedly testing its own game streaming service. The Federal Trade Commission did not comment on whether the practice was anti-competitive when contacted by VentureBeat.

GameStop officials told VentureBeat that Square Enix, the publisher behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution, pre-packaged the coupon without informing GameStop — prompting GameStop to pull the coupons out of the game packages. The brick-and-mortar game retailer instructed its employees to open copies of the game and remove the code. Gamers who purchased a PC version of the game were originally treated to a free copy of the game on OnLive, which runs games on powerful remote servers.

“We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores,” a GameStop spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge.”

OnLive runs games on powerful remote servers and streams the games like a YouTube video to a web browser. The service can run triple-A titles like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on computers and even tablets that don’t have a lot of processing power. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the first few high-profile titles to launch simultaneously on OnLive and PC and gaming consoles like the Xbox 360.

“We were part of their overall campaign, they have a long manufacturing cycle,” OnLive chief executive Steve Perlman told VentureBeat. “It’s the beginning of a trend — we have had some deals with indie downloads like the Humble Indie Bundle, we’re doing distribution inside the box.”

GameStop still relies on sales of physical copies of games and a large part of its revenue comes from buying and selling used physical copies of games. The company is facing stiff competition from digital distribution services like Steam and streaming services like Gaikai and OnLive.



How GameStop cheated their customers

August 25, 2011 News No comments

GameStop has been cheating their customers ,they have been accused of removing coupon from the  Deus Ex: Human Revolotion PC version that was released this week , GameStop employees have been opening up the boxed copies of the PC version of the game and removing the coupon that was offered  by the game’s publisher, SquareEnix.

What was the coupon for?

A free version of the game on the OnLive game streaming service.

they were caught red handed by journalists from GameSpy, the retailer had the decency to own up to what they’ve done.

But why would they do such a thing, which blurs the line between retailing and theft?

Well, it just so happens that GameStop has recently announced a competing game streaming service , and sees themselves within their rights to not promote “competitive services without a formal partnership,” as they’ve stated on their Facebook page.

you can find more info here: TechCrunch




GameStaq Review

July 30, 2011 Video Game News 2 comments

The brainchild of two New York gamers who were frustrated with the current options for buying and selling used video games, Gamestaq.com officially launched last week. It’s a site that promises fair pricing and no hassles, a marketplace built by gamers for gamers. we recently spoke with co-founder Joe Gindi to find out what Gamestaq is all about, and why it might be a better alternative than your local GameStop.

What is Gamestaq?

Joe Gindi: Gamestaq is a seamless peer-to-peer marketplace for gamers to buy and sell their video games directly with each other. The seamless part of it pretty much means that buyer and seller will never need to interact with each other, which differentiates us from the auction sites like eBay, etc.

The way it works is a seller would come to the site and post his game for sale. The price of the game is actually set by us. We have an algorithm that goes out, or bots that go out, into the Net and pull in pricing from, like, 10 or 15 different sources. Then, we have our own algorithm that puts all those prices together and comes out with the perfect market price for that game. Then the seller would come see the market price and post it up for sale. Then the buyer comes to Gamestaq. It just shows the game in stock at that set price. He clicks if he wants to buy it and then all of the magic happens pretty much behind the scenes. Gamestaq facilitates the entire sale from beginning to end.

So, we would charge the card of the buyer or go through his Pay Pal and then we would provide the shipping label directly to the seller, which is a pre-paid label. They would just pack up the game and send it straight to the buyer. But there is never any interaction between them, no need for them to talk with each other, haggle with each other. [It's] very basic.

How did the idea for Gamestaq come about?

Gindi: My co-founder and I, we were originally looking to sell our video games. We’ve always traded our games back into GameStop in the past, but we were trying to find a better option to try to make some more money on our games, since GameStop gets very low trading rates on their games compared to what the games are really worth. Really, the only other options we saw at the time were sites like eBay or Craigslist and there was nothing really dedicated for gamers. So, we felt we really had an opportunity there to bring to gamers something very customized and specific, something gamers would be able to get a lot of benefit out of without having to go through the hassles and the hoops of all the other marketplaces that are out there.

Will the website have any other features besides the ability to market used games? Are you planning on building a community around the website?

Gindi: That’s a great question. We are planning to build a community around the site. Right now, the extra features that we’ve added in are that users can build their own libraries and what we call “Staqs.” They can build their Staq up and they can actually show off their Staq to all the users. We have something called Staq Worth. As you add games to your Staq, it calculates how much your Staq is actually worth, or your library is worth, based on the market value. So, if you have 20 games up there, we populate on pricing and then tell you what your Staq is worth. It’s $150, $200 dollars. We’re going to be putting that up against all the other users on the site. So, it’ll tell you your ranking, how high up the line you are with your Staq Worth, etc. So, that was a fun little feature we put in.

Obviously, we have wish lists and stuff like that. We do have a profile section on the site. We do not have anything like internal messaging yet. That’s obviously a feature that we’re definitely planning on adding. We’re also obviously utilizing all the standard social APIs that are out there – Twitter and Facebook integration, stuff like that. But, yeah, we do plan on hopefully building up a community within Gamestaq to allow people to communicate about stuff that they love, which is pretty much about gaming.

Why should gamers use Gamestaq over other retailers like Game Stop, eBay and Cheap Ass Gamer?

Gindi: Just for the record, we love Cheap Ass Gamer. The community there is unbelievable. The people that are part of that community, that forum, have supported Gamestaq in the past during our beta launch and we’re extremely grateful to them, eternally grateful to them.

On Gamestaq, there are no posting fees [like on eBay]. We do take a small fee from the seller. We actually split the fee between the seller and the buyer. We feel that that fee should be split. It shouldn’t just be lumped onto the seller. It hovers around 10 percent and the buyer pays about 5 and the seller pays about 5. There are no auctions to cover, or to worry about, or to follow, and you’ll never have to communicate with the other side of the transaction. So, actually, we’re giving people the most benefit of the peer-to-peer transaction without the downside of it, which is actually dealing with the other peer.

Then, on the GameStop side, a gamer walks into a store and he wants to sell his copy of Black Ops. They’ll buy that back for probably $30 bucks. Then, they’ll put it back on the shelf for $55. It’s kind of like heart-wrenching. As a seller at GameStop, they only give you store credit. They don’t give you cash. If you do want cash and you request cash, then that value is even less than the $30 they were giving you. So, bottom line, you’re walking out of GameStop with a gift card and with a value on it that’s much, much less than your game is actually worth. If you come to Gamestaq, again, all our prices are set. You’re getting a much higher value for your game.

Is Gamestaq still in beta?

Gindi: We had a beta run of the site in late 2009. We had about 2,000 users on site testing the actual business model, to test if gamers want to transact this way and if they enjoyed it, if it was something that they would continue doing and the results were overwhelming. All the feedback that we got from gamers at the time was unbelievable.

is the site live now? Gamers could go right now and start buying and selling?

Gindi: They can go start transacting right now and post games for sale and buy what’s available. Absolutely.

eBay has a mobile app that let’s people track their auctions on the go. Does Gamestaq have any plans to enter the mobile apps market in a similar fashion?

Gindi: Yes. We envision it being more if you’re in your house, or you’re actually maybe even in the store — maybe you’re actually in GameStop — you’ll be able to scan a barcode with our app. It would show you exactly how much you would get, how much that game would be worth on Gamestaq if you wanted to sell it and how much you could buy it for instead of buying it used at GameStop, or at Toys’R'Us, or at other stores. So, yeah, that’s definitely a vision of ours and we’re probably going to have it by next holiday, probably a year from now.

Anything you’d like to add?

Gindi: Pretty much we’re a bunch of gamers here. We’re just a bunch of gamers that were frustrated with the current solutions out there and we felt that 2010 was time for a better solution. We hope that other gamers will see the value in this and enjoy buying and selling games on Gamestaq.



Online Video Game Rental Review

July 26, 2011 Comparison No comments

our  mission is to bring gamers the most up to date information and reviews on the latest developments in online game rental services. Renting games is a great way to try new games before buying them and gives gamers access to the newest releases without having to pay full retail. We encourage participation and will soon be transitioning to a blog template which will allow for more feedback from our reader base.

 



Raising the Game for the Kinect Dance Central 2 Achieves True Multiplayer Status

July 18, 2011 Video Game News No comments

And here were all the reviewers wondering how the games developers would put all the new motion controllers that videogame consoles come with these days, to good use. If you’re lucky enough to have Kinect motion controller sitting next to your Xbox 360, there’s no better way to loosen up at a party than to pop Dance Central into your machine, turn the volume up and let the mayhem begin (with some dancers, mayhem wouldn’t be far from the truth). With help from the Kinect, Dance Central has just become the top motion-controlled game on Earth – using the motion sensing possibilities of the Kinect to hysterical effect. The camera in the device reads your motion and the character on screen challenges you to throw off whatever holds you back and to be as wild as them. Not only that, the game invites you to compete with your friends in dance too.

As far as party activities go, there are few games of any kind that can bring a group together as successfully as the trio: Xbox, Kinect, Dance Central. In most cases, since drinking can make it difficult to follow the challenging lead of the on-screen characters, parties can turn into fun alcohol-free affairs sometimes on the strength of this game. One has probably never seen a party look alive in this way without the help of a lot of alcohol. There can practically be no wallflowers at a party this way.

Of course, Dance Central has been around for some time now; the next installment, Dance Central 2, is due out in the fall. It was on show at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in June earlier this year and the improvements made were obvious. The best one of course is that they’ve made it multiplayer. It’s all about Saturday Night Fever-style dance battles now. The original Dance Central has a dance battles too. But it can never be the same when you have to take turns in front of the Kinect. Dance Central 2 makes it much more immediate and spontaneous – both competitors dance at the same time to the same song. Why, competing dancers can drift in and out of a dance at will. And Kinect just keeps track of everything brilliantly.

Of course, you can expect Dance Central to keep track of how you dance and declare a winner. But if you want a few dance lessons before you dance competitively, the program’s Break it Down mode can actually teach players all the dance moves they’ll need to master.



GameFly acquires computer game firm Direct2Drive

May 26, 2011 GameFly No comments

Video game rental service GameFly acquires computer game firm Direct2Drive

Online video game service GameFly has acquired Direct2Drive, IGN’s PC game download service.

The deal combines Direct2Drive’s library of more than 3,000 PC and Mag games with GameFly’s collection of more than 7,000 new and used games for the PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance.”The acquisition makes GameFly more of an analogue to Netflix than any other entity in the gaming business. Netflix offers access to content on two ways, on disc and via streaming,” says Evan Narcisse at IFC.com.

As part of the transaction, IGN will gain a minority equity stake in GameFly, but will play no direct role in GameFly’s operations or governance. News Corporation will take an observer seat on GameFly’s board. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We’re very excited to bring the D2D team onboard at GameFly and expand our ability to deliver games to consumers,” said GameFly CEO David Hodess in the announcement. “Only GameFly can offer a complete library of physical and digital games for the PC, Mac and consoles in one place.”

Added Jorge Espinel of News Corp. Digital Media Group: “GameFly has been an innovator in the video games industry, and it continues to evolve with the expansion of its digital offering. We’re excited to continue working and partnering with GameFly moving forward.”



GameMine Video Game Rental Reviews

May 18, 2011 Game Mine No comments

GameMine.com has managed to climb several places in our top 10 rankings for US  Online Video Game Rental sites because of the recent changes they have made. These new features will not only please the existing members but it will also tempt many new customers, especially as many more enhancements are in the pipeline.

Most of the video game rental sites, when you sign up  ask you to fill up your queue (although here it’s called a minelist) with video games that you would like to rent. As soon as those video  games become available GameMine sends them out to their customers and the customers send them back to GameMine when they want to rent  another game.

GameMine have recently introduced a very thoughtful billing procedure for new customers. When you sign up, they send your first game with a delivery confirmation via USPS. It’s only when the post office confirms delivery of that game that GameMine charge your credit card and your first month of service starts. So you’re not paying while you wait for your first game to arrive.

Then, once you have been a customer for a period of 90 days, you receive the 2x Speed option on your account.  This useful feature means that you can request that your next game is sent out as soon as your last game leaves your hands.  Your last game and next game cross paths in the mail, thereby reducing your waiting time.

In fact, according to GameMine, their 2x speed feature makes them twice as fast as any other service, even though they currently only have one distribution center in New Jersey. We hear that they are planning to open a second distribution center (this time in Florida) in time for the busy post-holiday video game rental rush. So turn-around time for rentals should be even faster.

According to Game Mine, they are currently working out a contract with the US Military to provide rental gaming subscriptions to the Liberty Centers on bases throughout the world. This contract followed their title sponsorship of an all services event held in Pearl Harbor base in September 2008, during which they gave away t-shirts, consoles and games to the winners and participants.

Game Mine are also currently partnered with a yet-to-be-named large appliance and electronics retailer. The GameMine service is being sold as part of their console bundles for Xbox, PS3 and Wii. Contracts with other stores are also in the pipeline. When you purchase console or accessory bundles from partner stores, you receive a free trial with GameMine.com: 60 days with console bundles; 30 days for accessory bundles.

The GameMine website is nicely laid out and the games are all split into easy to browse categories. The design is also easy on the eye and the menu bars even change colour depending on which console you are browsing for. The fancy graphics does come at a cost however, as this certainly wasn’t one of the fastest sites we have reviewed.

The availability of titles does seem good though. We were happy to see lots of the new releases on PS3 and Xbox360 with a green “available” by their name. This may be due to an injection of cash in May 2008 when the company was taken over by a Florida-based company (Gamemine Direct, LLC) .

There is also a feature which recommends other titles you might like, based on titles you are currently looking at. This is a great way to be informed about games that might have slipped under your radar. Speaking of radar, Game Mine is one of the few sites to offer a parental control feature which allows parents to exclude games by rating or by genre. So if you have willful youngsters, this should help you ensure that they are not playing over-18 games, like the latest installment of Grand Theft Auto.

Another nice feature, offered by few other sites in this category, is the opportunity to rent movies in PSP format. This is always handy if you know you have a long journey coming up. The range of titles on offer isn’t huge but does include some of the classics, such as Alien and Mad Max. More than enough to keep you entertained on a bus journey.

With all these new features, it’s not surprising that over the past six months, GameMine.com have increased their client base by 1500%. We hear that they are currently working on a new website for the company that incorporates not only the rental component, but also a free “gamer community” component where gamers can show off their accolades on each system. Whether they wish to display their login name and trophies for the PS3, or their Gamertag and Gamerscore for their Xbox 360, users will have the ability to design and personalize their community page with gaming thematic scores and pictures from their favorite games through an open source platform.

 

 



Video Game Rental Comparison

May 6, 2011 Comparison No comments

Here’s a comparison chart of Best Video Game Rentals:



What Should You Consider When You Want to Join a Video Game Rental Service?

May 4, 2011 Comparison No comments

There are many benefits for renting video games online instead of owning a actual game. You avoid the chance that you buy a bad game without trying it first. Game rental websites mostly provide more than thousands of games for renting, and they should support for all of the popular gaming consoles such as Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Playstation1, PSP, XBox, XBox 360 and Nintendo’s DS and Wii.

By comparing to buying new games, online game rental services are much more cheaper. You are only required to pay a fee for each rental game, and you are able to select your rental plan based on how many games you want to rent per month, Your rental plan cost will be based on how many games you want to rent per month. Moreover, there are not return dates and no late fees, you can rent and play the game anytime you want and you can mail it back to the game rental company after you finish the game. All video game rental companies will pay ahead for the postage so you don’t have to pay for the shipping.

When you decided to join video game rental service, there are several things you should look for before you choose which service you want to join.

Features - The rental company should offer free trial for people who want to trial the service. Moreover, the shipping of the game should be free and there is no late fee. The customer service should be good so you can get your response quick. The game rental website should provide all the information you’ll ever need about a game such as cheats and codes, reviews, videos, screen shots, walkthroughs, and recommendations.
Game Selection – The rental company should provide a large selection of games for all different ages and tastes. These games should work on all the popular gaming consoles.

Shipping - The rental company should have at least 4 distribution centers around the nation so they can ship your game fast.



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