GameTap Scaling Back Free Games Service

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Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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GameTap Scaling Back Free Games Service



Psychonauts [http://www.gametap.com/][/I].


Starting January 22, the online gaming service will "return a large chunk of our free games back to the Gold vault. They will still be available, but only to GameTap Gold subscribers." Users could previously sign up for a free GameTap account to access these games, providing a convenient and, moreover, legal way to play a large number of classic titles like the original subscription [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(computer_game)] costs $59.95 for an entire year or $9.95 a month.

Why shut down one of the best and most well-known features of the arguably ailing service? Possibly belt-tightening for rocky economic times, but GameTap's saying it's all part of the plan. "As many of you know, over the past year or so we've released well over one hundred games for free, in order to entice people to sample what GameTap has to offer and, hopefully, subsrcibe to our service," GameTap announced [http://gametapblog.com/?p=226] on its blog. "The strategy has worked incredibly well for us, and now we're ready to move on."

GameTap will still offer some free content, including the 40 free games that aren't going into the "Gold Vault." They'll also start offering "weekly samplers" in the form of full games that will be free for a week at a time. Planned weekly samplers for the near future include X-Com: UFO Defense, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and Sid Meier's Pirates!, with some of the soon-to-be-previously-free games scheduled as well.

I played Deus Ex for the first time thanks to GameTap's free games service. Seeing it go, I can only think of what J.C. Denton himself would have said [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DAPXMZk2iw] in a similar situation: "What a shame..."

View the whole list of removed games here [http://gametapblog.com/?p=226].

[Via Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5134611/gametap-rolls-free-games-back-into-the-vault]]

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Tiamat666

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Dec 4, 2007
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Keane Ng said:
...I can only think of what J.C. Denton himself would have said [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DAPXMZk2iw] in a similar situation: "What a shame..."
JC would not have said that. Saying that would imply that JC feels regret, and JC Denton has no feelings.
JC would have sneaked into GameTap headquartes via a ventilation shaft in the back alley, disabled security cameras with a multitool, hacked into the GameTap mainframe with his nano implant and freed all those trapped games from the oppressor by releasing them into cyberspace.

And out he'd go through the front door, wasting everyone in the process... just to make sure he didn't miss anything interesting.
 

Blank__

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Oct 9, 2008
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Ailing? They are releasing more new games (as in, not 10 years old) now than ever before. Even some that have come out in the past few months, even some that don't suck!
 

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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You guys didn't let me down. More replies about JC Denton and what a badass he is than the topic itself. Right f'in on.
 

deathyepl

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May 9, 2008
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I personally find the service to be well worth the yearly fee... unlimited dipping into the bargain bin for only $60 a year.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Sixty bucks a year - the cost of a single AAA release - seems pretty damn fair for what's available. I don't think we can be too critical if GameTap wants to make a few bucks out of this.
 

AceDiamond

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Malygris said:
Sixty bucks a year - the cost of a single AAA release - seems pretty damn fair for what's available. I don't think we can be too critical if GameTap wants to make a few bucks out of this.
I think it's more that it feels like a bait and switch.

Or in this case a "bait and sodomize your wallet"
 

Miral

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Jun 6, 2008
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Meh. They *still* don't support non-US subscribers nor 64-bit Windows, so they're irrelevant.
 

BertTheNerd

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May 11, 2009
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Miral said:
Meh. They *still* don't support non-US subscribers nor 64-bit Windows, so they're irrelevant.
which is sad.. us poor poor Europeans get all excited about
quite a cool collection of games, and once you hit the "go
gold now" button, the whole thing screws you over...
GameTap, if you here me - you know what to do!
 

mcx

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Jan 5, 2009
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No more Deus EX!?

This is a conspiracy of the goverment to make the best game ever slightly harder to find and play!