Is Gamefly Really Worth Your Cash?
So first off, I know I said I was going to post a review of the Xbox 360 game Dark Sector. Ultimately, I decided against it because the game is old. Not too old if you really think about it, but It’s not a new release. So with that, I joined Gamefly so I can rent new releases. I attempted to rent Infinite Undiscovery and Viva Piñata but I ended up with Eternal Sonata instead. I’ll explain why later. So while I wait, I’ll review Gamefly’s rental service for those unfamiliar to it’s true terms.
Gamefly is a online video game rental service that let’s you, well…rent games for any console. Any console being anything current-gen (PS3, X360, Wii), Last-gen (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube), and recent handheld (GBA, DS, PSP). At sign up, your offered a one game out at a time rental plan for $15.95 a month. First month is actually $8.95, with the option to cancel anytime. You can rent out up to 4 games at a time, but higher rates apply.
They require you to make a list called “My GameQ” where you tell them which games you want and in what order, since they ship each game as soon as you return you have out. Since they have a limited stock of games, the availability of each game is detailed on your Game Q in several forms.
- Not Available
- Very Low – Less than 25% chance they ship it first day. (Won’t Ship)
- Low – 25 to 49% (Won’t ship)
- Medium – 50 to 74% (Could Ship)
- High – 75% or greater (Could Ship)
- Available Now – Will ship
What you need to keep in mind is that they ship six days a week, excluding Sundays, from 4 different locations. Their warehouses are in California, Florida, Philadelphia and Texas. From what I’ve been told, the Florida warehouse seems to only ship in that state alone and the one in Philadelphia ships only to the following:
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- Maine
- Michigan
- North Carolina
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Vermont
- Washington, D.C.
- West Virginia
As I signed up for Gamefly, I originally thought that I would recieve any game I chose. I was proven wrong, as they have limited supply of each game in every warehouse around the United States. The actual turn around time from sending in a game to recieving your next one all depends on your location and which warehouse it’s shipped from.
In my case, I’m currently in Houston, Texas. The first game I rented was ‘Available Now’ on a Friday, so it shipped From Austin, TX that day and arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Not all games will ship from your nearest location. When I rented Eternal Sonata on Sept. 4th, It was shipped from the Los Angeles, CA warehouse because the game at that moment was only available there. Gamefly states shipping takes 2-4 days so I should be expecting Eternal Sonata today, if not then tomorrow.
That’s basically the gist of Gamefly’s service. Join at your own risk, if you can afford the monthly payments. Make sure you’re pretty close to a warehouse if you want your games quick, otherwise I personally think it’s a waste of your time. They do charge tax with the monthly fee’s and they only ship within the United States.
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