Digital content delivery is big business within the gaming industry and there are quite a lot of big names in the market such as Steam, GamersGate and Direct2Drive. Now it seems the American company Gamefly has acquired Direct2Drive from IGN entertainment (yes IGN owned Direct2Drive). Although Direct2Drive struggled to compete with Steam (particularly when Steam signed agreements with companies to make games only registrable through Steam such as Modern Warfare 2) it was still a very big company having approx 8% of the digital download market.
Apparently, certain titles offered by Direct2Drive will not be offered by Gamefly when the takeover is complete. Anno 2070 is one of those games which will face the chop and in addition to this Gamefly offer no Prima guides either so users will have to do without those or go elsewhere. The Direct2Drive site states that “Some older titles may not be available immediately after the transition, and will be added later.”
With regards to the rental service Gamefly offers that will not be transferred to the UK when Direct2Drive UK is taken over, in fact Non-US residents are unlikely to see any benefits of this deal apart from a rebranding of Direct2Drive and the removal of certain game titles. The transition will start in January and we won’t be surprised if a lot of unhappy Direct2Drive customers take their custom elsewhere.
Source: PCGamer
Interesting. Generally when companies do acquisitions aren’t they trying to offer more services to their customers, not less? Like for instance when my employer, DISH, acquired Blockbuster I didn’t understand the decision at all until they released the Blockbuster Movie Pass. It offers a massive selection of movies and video games by mail (with in-store exchanges), unlimited instant streaming, and a slew of high definition movie channels all for ten bucks a month. The Blockbuster Movie Pass is actually the reason I cancelled my Gamefly subscription since I now get games and movies for less money.