Background on GameFly:

GameFly is currently the biggest online video game rental company in the US, and they have been doing business since 2002. They offer new members a ten day free trial for a two games at a time plan ($22.95/mo thereafter), or the chance of getting the first month's membership at $8.95 for one game at a time or $12.95 for two games at a time. The prices after the free trial incentive ends are:

• $15.95 per month for one game at a time
• $22.95 per month for two games at a time
• $29.95 per month for three games at a time (although this option requires the member to have an active account of good standing for sixty days or more)
• $36.95 per month for four games at a time (as above)

There is no long-term commitment and can cancel, upgrade or downgrade any time you want – no questions asked. Just go into “My Account” on your membership page, choose “Change My Membership Plan,” and you are good to go.

GameQ

No late fees are ever applied to your account, meaning that you can keep each game for as long as you want. When you do finally decide it’s time for something new, just pop the game into the pre-paid envelope supplied and once received by the company, the new game on your GameQ list will be mailed to you.

I initially decided to try my luck with the ten day free trial that was offered, so I registered, signed in and created an account for myself. Once that was done I found the site really easy to navigate and loaded up my GameQ.

The GameQ is basically a list of the games that you have chosen that will ultimately be mailed out to you at the appropriate times. Obviously the games at the head of the list are sent first, but you can rearrange the list anytime, and in anyway, you want. It’s just a case of typing in which position you want the game moved to and hitting the “Update My GameQ” button. Once this is done all the other games that are then listed below it will obviously have move one place lower on the list. You can do this for as few or as many choices on the list if you want.

But your GameQ is not only about lists of games. It will give you all the information you need about which games were sent to you, when they were sent to you and pricing information should you decide that the game is so good that you just have to keep it forever!

Game Selection

GameFly has well over 6000 game titles for rent and the interface on the site makes it really simple to locate them. You will also find a handy navigation bar at the top of the main interface that lists all the different game consoles. At the moment this includes PSP, PS2, PS3, XBOX, XBOX360, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Wii, and it then just filter results by your interests. I found this feature really helps to find what I'm looking for, with a load of choices to choose from; everything from “Most Popular” and “New Releases”, to “Coming Soon” and “See All”. The default with these was fifteen titles per page, which was less than I expected, but you can view 45 or even 75 games per page. You can also change the format of the page if you wish, changing from thumbnails of the games to just text titles, or vice-versa.

Once you have a list of games up on your screen, you will notice that not only does it have a “Rent” button underneath it, but also some other pertinent information. This includes the title of the game, its ESRB rating (this is the perceived Entertainment Software Rating Board), the release date of the game in question and also the games platform. Then, if you click on the title or image you will find an even larger list of details for you. Although quite a long list, these include genre, publisher, price to buy the game should you wish to keep it, if it is online enabled, the number of players who can play, if the game is available on other platforms, an alert for when/if the game becomes available for sale, trade button, “rate this” button for that particular game, and there is even an option to write a review for it.

When you add games to your GameQ, you will notice that some are marked by the following tags:

• High Availability meant there was a 75% or higher chance of the game being shipped out
• Medium meant a 50*-74% chance of shipping
• Low meant a 25%-49% chance of shipping
• Very Low meant less than a 25% chance of shipping

Underneath all the descriptions, Gamefly includes this text:

“We get a large volume of discs returned daily, so a copy of your requested game may become available during the day, even if it is not listed as Available Now. We'll always attempt to ship you the first available game in your GameQ. If your first choice is not available, we'll send the next available title in your GameQ, so we don't leave you without a game.”

GameFly and Shipping

When it comes to shipping, GameFly always forwards an email to you when a game has been sent out, as well as doing the same when they receive a game back from you, which I guess is good for your own peace of mind. An added advantage which I found out is the fact that you can also get these messages sent to you via SMS to your cell phone. When I ordered my first games, I received an email letting me know they had been shipped, and I actually received them through my mail box the very next day. When I had finished with them I just placed them into the envelope supplied and popped them back into the mail. A couple of days later I received my confirmation email telling me that GameFly had received the games back and that they had actually shipped out the next game on my list already.

It obviously depends where you live though regarding the next day delivery. As they only have distribution centers in Tampa, LA, Pittsburgh and Austin it could take two or three days to reach you if you live quite far from these places. I live in Tampa myself, so I am in a position to receive next day delivery, which is great.

When the games do arrive through your mail box, they are inside an envelope which is protected by a cardboard sleeve, designed to prevent any damage to the games. You can use this same prepaid envelope to send the games back as well. Another good thing about GameFly is that they have utilized a system called “Fast Return.” In a nutshell, they have developed this system in conjunction with the US Postal Service to not only improve on delivery times for the members of the site, but to also fast track the processing of the next game on your GameQ list. Basically, as soon as GameFly receives confirmation for the postal authorities that your returning game is in the postal system, they will then process the next game on your list.

Parental Controls

GameFly offers clients the ability to set parental controls for their games, which also gives the ability to set up what type of information is freely viewable when going through lists. So not only would children be restricted in what they could rent from your account, they would also be restricted in what they could see. There are parental control options for the reviews as well.
GameFly Incentives

Gamefly Incentives - Gamefly Dollars

GameFly offers their members incentives and rewards and these are tied in with the length of your current membership. The longer you are a member, the higher the reward level you will reach.

There are three types of reward level for you to aspire to:

• Level One – After three months as a member gives you five GameFly dollars every three months
• Level Two – After six months as a member you get 5% of all game purchases from the site as well as five GameFly dollars every three months
• Level Three – After twelve months as a member you get 10% off all game purchases from the site and five GameFly dollars every three months

Purchasing Pre-Played Games

These GameFly dollars can be used toward purchases of the pre-played games only, keeping games you have rented, or buying games at the GameFly store. The only drawback is that you have to use these “dollars” within ninety days or they will expire.

Both members and non-members can purchase used games from GameFly at the low pre-played prices offered. The only difference between members buying and non-members buying is that members get free shipping whereas non-members have to pay a $2.95 shipping cost. If anybody decides to use the “Keep” feature after renting a game, then GameFly will send all the relevant cases and manuals at no extra cost.

GameFly Tunes Each Month

As an added bonus, GameFly now offers all its members five MP3 tracks to download each and every month for free. There are established artists available as well as up-and-coming ones. Even non-members and visitors can download the free MP3’s – but only one per month.

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