And the push for devs to move to digital distribution continues.....

All around, a good deal of the time trading in a game gives you a very small amount of money. I've never seen any good reason to turn in games for a couple of dollars even if you are done with them, although that is not obviously the case for some people. I'm just wondering If gamefly will in turn start puting these games in circulation or will just have them for resale.

Wonder if it's a good rate or not.

Once ISP's stop being bandwidth whores, I will welcome DD, but until then it is physical copies all the way. Although for games and such I would prefer to have copies. Renting is another story.

I think Jeremiah is a little late to the party, I received the Trade-In beta invite months ago. Unfortunately, the credit you receive goes to your monthly bill only, you can't use it to buy other used games from their online store.

So, I'm in the "beta" and here's some of the rates:

New DS Releases average about 15 bucks, with later releases around 11-13 dolalrs.

PS3/360 new releases are at around $31, and that in turn decreases over time. For example, Condemnded 2 is at $31, while Fifa Soccer 07 is at $5.95

Wii new releases start at about $25.30 (Brawl for instance), and decreases over time. But ye, Boogie is fetching $23.

You can also tradein Xbox and GBA games too, as well as PSP Movies.

Overall, not the greatest of asking prices. And no word as to whther the games requires boxes, manuals, etc.

Yeah, this is fairly old news. It was back before xmas that I received the invite, and I remember reading some articles about it back then. Like Yorick said it's only good on the monthly bill but the prices are good, usually within a couple dollars of what they charge you to buy the item unless it's brand new (I've actually run across a couple that they were paying more for than they were charging).

[goozex.com] is a better deal IMO.

@Hopanoe: Terrible rates. Not the worst I've seen by far but still not worth it.

Someone get me the trade in value for Halo 3 from gamefly.

so far this seems to be worse trade-ins than gamestop.

When will gamers learn to use eBay and craigslist more?

**** ! right when I canceled my account.

hrm... i got my email today. Maybe they expanded?

Haven't they been doing this for a long time, cause I could almost swear that they were buying used games while I still had my account, and that was several months ago. =S

Having a centralized collection of titles is much more efficient than EB/Gamestop's version. You can match supply/demand easier and set prices accordingly. How many times have you gone into a Gamestop and seen used games that cost $40 when they should be worth closer to $20. Their large base of users can help Gamefly determine what a game is actually worth. Each user can rate or vote on their eagerness to rent a particular title. Use a simple formula to correlate number of votes, and "check out" rate, and Gamefly can better predict the true value of what they should pay for a game. The "bid-ask" spread will be much lower than what Gamestop would charge because they will have more accurate pricing information. That way, they'll be able to pay more for used games, sell them for less, and still come out ahead.

Another point: Gamefly can use this system to supplement hot, "new" releases. If they're running short of something like CoD 4, they can run a reverse "sale" to attract additional copies. It will be much cheaper than buying a new copy which will instantly become used after the first rental.

@Callidux: Us smart ones already have.

@SwapMeet:

Accurate pricing info?

rofl, k.

Old news is old.

I've been in their beta since the day it started roughly 3 months ago (probably even farther back). It was posted on MonsterConsole.com (or whatever the site was), and it isn't worth it in the slightest.

It's basically gamestop/ebgames, except you don't walk into the store. You send them the game and they give you little to nothing for it, then rent it out to other people. If you know anything about selling games, it's utterly not worth it in the slightest.

I got the same invite, but I don't think I'll be attending this party.

Besides all of the obviously bad features, they are forgetting one thing: I don't own any games I want to sell because I rent them from Gamefly.

@Kyle81: the only thing I hate about digital distribution is can't resell the game if your don't like it or get bored of it. I bought Bioshock day it came out for 60$ I beat it roughly a month later I resold it for 30$ (Credit) I essentially only payed 30$ for bioshock. If I 'd gotten the steam version that wouldn't of been possible >.>

-AS

I got this invite also. Crazy thing, nearly every price competes or beats Gamestops trade in value. There are some really bad one's tho, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2- $11. This game goes for $80 easy on Ebay.

I got a request to join this program too (I've subscribed to GameFly for almost 2 years now)... and as much as I like their rental/purchase service, the rates are generally the same as those of Gamestop/EB and since you are mailing your games to them, it seems like more of a hassle to get the same return.

I'll just stick with them as a rental/purchase service, and the few games I plan to resell, I'll go local during one of their deals.

As a developer, I'd be thrilled that my hard work was essentially being legally black-marketed so those selling my games didn't have to pay me full price for them new.

Thrilled.

Personally, I'm with bleeps that Goozex is a MUCH better deal. You get almost 80%-90% of what the game is worth instead of the 20% or less that you get at Gamestop and elsewhere. There's no way I'll trade in new games for half of what I got them for.

Also, as a big fan of Gamefly's services (as they are now) I have to say this could essentially tarnish the quality of their games as most of their games are in excellent condition. I also love having them send their mint (almost always brand new) manuals and cases when you buy the games outright or decide to keep the rentals. I'll be seriously bummed if they start sending me scratched up used games from other users without the option to get the manuals/cases :(

@Seven Is Darker:

I'm just wondering If gamefly will in turn start puting these games in circulation or will just have them for resale.

Seconded.

In any case, I used GameFly for a good ass while and can honestly say that it's a great service; yet, their success is dragged down by the large amount of customers they have and their supplies/availability suffers GREATLY as a result. Amazing service, if you're patient enough, which I'm not, so fuck that.

I have unreal III, unopened. Gamestop wouldn't take it unless I opened it. They said try Walmart. But they were offering $24 I believe, while Gamefly is offering $23.

I stopped using gamestop for trades months ago. I found goozex via egm and since my first trade i havent looked back.

Hello January 2008.

Just want to chime in that I'm also a happy trader at Goozex - all it costs is $2-$3 dollars to ship your games out when trading something in (so long as you're postal savvy), and $1 to receive a game. Their matrix matching system is completely automated for speed and efficiency, and Goozex guarantee's you will not get screwed by any sour trades (sent a game someone claims they never received? Received a game that doesn't play? Goozex will cover you - they've no reason not to).

Until everything goes to digital downloads and developers finally get their full dues, Goozex beats the panties off of the likes of G$ or GF.

"I can't imagine there are too many publishers and developers who will be thrilled to learn of yet another game retailer who's tapping into the used market."

The developers can go fuck themselves. I want my Goldeneye on VC.

I knew I had read this on Kotaku before:

[kotaku.com]

@PlayerX: That has nothing to do with developers and everything to do with lawyers. Goldeneye is a mess of a legal issues between the multiple studios that worked on it to the fact that none of them have the Bond license anymore.

"I can't imagine there are too many publishers and developers who will be thrilled to learn of yet another game retailer who's tapping into the used market."

Aren't people who "gamefly" everything not really in the market for buying new games anyway? I guess you're saying that they're sad that Gamefly won't be buying as many of their games new anymore ... While I'm sure they're a big buyer, it's not obvious to me that this will make a difference in sales.

@ ManjiKengo:

As of March 18th, trade-in for Halo 3 is $23.00

You asked, I told.

@splines: I imagine you're just trolling and not completely oblivious to the doctrine of first-sale.
[en.wikipedia.org]

Which is why I hate DD and most software licenses, it's all sham to try to have a run-around current laws.

goomba478, I too am a big gamefly fan and you can rest a little easier knowing that gamefly has stated in no uncertain terms that these games will not be in the rental rotation. They have also stated that all games will require cases and manuals in good condition so we can sleep better knowing quality will not suffer. As I understand it, these games will be sold as "pre-played games" in their store, just like any other.

Insofar as the trade-in program goes where those of us who might trade in a few games are concerned... I think it works well given that the gamefly model is geared toward gamers who are more about playing everything vs. owning everything. I like the idea of the trade in $$ offsetting my membership. Granted, I'm not a huge game buyer (pretty much only ever buy used from GF if at all) but it's a good idea if you're sitting on stuff you'd like to get rid of and you want to optimize your membership. I'm all for using everything that's given to me.