You know, I've never gotten a broken disc from Gamefly. I've gotten about 3 or 4 broken discs from Netflix.
I think they're freaking out over nothing, to be honest. Netflix has a much broader appeal, it only makes sense they'd get a special deal (along with Blockbuster, who actually IS a Netflix competitor, unlike gamefly) #legal
So, what they're saying is ... two post offices, out of tens of thousands of post offices, created slots for Netflix -- and this is seen as endemic preferential treatment?
They're going to have a problem with that. The other question is whether these are third-party run post offices.
None of the dozen or so post offices I've visited in Tampa have anything like that.
@jayntampa: No I think they are saying... "You are breaking our discs, treat us like you treat our competitors..." then USPS says, "give us ONE example how we don't", then GameFly says "Here's two..." then the USPS says give us 4 examples... #legal
this might be a little off topic but gamefly is not worth it in my opinion. i payed for a couple months and i only received one game for two months pay time. I had around 10 games in my queue, and they never got shipped because gamefly kept saying there weren't enough copies, but 6/10 games had medium to high available and i still did not receive. Fuck gamefly.
@infinitezero: That happened to me as well. I understand GameFly is looking to blame its woes on the post office, but the organization itself has its own set of problems. You don't let your customers stare at a high availability queue weeks at a time while holding off sending anything and insisting the customer must add even more titles to get something.
@Kobun: I truly wish (and my pocketbook concurs) that GameFly were viable for anything but a casual (in terms of attention given to games, not the difficulty or nature of the games) gamer. But they're not. Netflix adding games would destroy GF within a month.
Wow. My experience was the total opposite of yours. I kinda wish that I had the time/money to go back to them because they treated me so well. But now that I think of it I really only used the service to play games I was interested in months ago so there were always high availability for me.
Personally I hate Gamefly after my experiences with them. I was a loyal customer back when they first started but one day I physically walked my two games into the USPS and put them in the mail slot in the office. Apparently Gamefly never received them and accused me of theft even though I had always returned my games with no problems. They told me to file a report will the USPS, which I did then they claimed that until I shelled out the $100 for the games I was permanently banned. This was close to 5 years ago and I tried to apply for their service again recently and they still refuse to let me join. They're the rocket scientists who put their games in BRIGHT ORANGE ENVELOPES THAT SAY GAMEFLY ON THEM. Maybe a postal employee took them, I will never know. Assholes.
@Revolution_is_coming: Netflix is much nicer about this. Several of my DVDs have gotten lost in the mail, or stolen from my apartment's drop off box (once I figured out what was going on, I started taking everything straight to the post office). You just tell them "I never received this," or "I sent this back but Netflix doesn't show it's been received." And they'll send you another copy at your request, or send you your next film.
Netflix are usually sorted out and dispatched to separately, and this was due to the long loose flap on Netflix envelopes which had a tendency of jamming and damaging sorting equipment. That said, I've never heard of any office around here creating, let alone allowing Netflix only outgoing mail slots for public drop off.
It's worth mentioning that Netflix and Blockbuster but cover their disks in basically a slim paper envelope over a tyvek sleeve. Both are considered letter size in dimension, but being rigid they are considered non-machinable as letters.
Gamefly's considerably larger, thicker ,and stiffer reinforced envelope is a different beast altogether. They are considered flats due to their thickness (hell, they are even marked as such on the envelope) but are still subject to being run through the flat sorting equipment.
Regarding the postal service, did you know that our taxes DON'T pay for the post office? I learned this from a postmaster we had to interview in a college journalism class. They make ALL of their money from postage. Stamps. Just Stamps.
I haven't seen these in NJ at all, but according to this postmaster, the USPS won't be around in 10 years anyway. "We're a dinosaur," he said.
And they really are. He also said the majority of mail they get is junk catalogs. The internet killed the pony express. They haven't adapted to the 21st century well it seems.
Why would netflix only slots for mail be against USPS policy? Seems like it would make a sorters job easier. Good to see the case is still pending and hasn't been dropped completely.
@EdwardWCross: Actually the USPS had a large cash reserve that was raided by congress last year. Congress made a law that required USPS to stockpile the cash for rainy day reserves(for USPS discretion). Then they came along and took it from them at about the same time they did the rebate checks everyone got. USPS had made all the money from just postage, amazingly. They are the only government agency that actually make money instead of taking from someone.
It should be noted that they increase prices based on inflation. Any company can make money if price increases are considered "facts of life" instead of acts of greed.
@Bouchart:
You can get many bills paperless these days (meaning they just send you an email and you pay it online). So that would be even less mail for you.
@Owen Good: Can you imagine when the usps dies and gamefly/netflix have to go through those courier services you mentioned? They'll pass the costs on to us and subsequently go under.
This used to be the biggest late night drunk argument between me and my libertarian friends in college.
The is EXACTLY what I've wanted ever since Netflix started streaming movies. I know we have a road ahead due to download rates, hard drive sizes, and overall game capacity, but I dream one day I'll be able to sit in front of my PS4/Xbox720/WiiThrii, and browse an enormous library of games, renting what I want for any number of predetermined days, and then purchasing the game outright for a slight discount if I want.
@Pitchswitch: still, nothing beats buying a game and sitting with the manual in your hands while you put the disc in the drive. and that new manual smell. mmm...
but again, it would be a nice way to try out a game, and then you could buy it if you wanted, either digital, or pay a little extra and get a boxed version. this could make demos obsolete. I think this is something Mr. Molyneux would agree with me on as a good thing!
@Creampope: Actually I get no satisfaction out of "holding the manual" or "putting the disc in the drive". My satisfaction comes from the game itself. I don't need to put a cd in to appreciate my music when it comes out of my iPod.
I want to play more games for as much money as I can. I'm not the kind of person that likes to line my bookshelf with games, dvds, cds, ect. I feel that's just a form of boasting. To me, the satisfaction comes from the experience not holding the physical medium.
The idea of digital rentals, actually, sounds pretty good. I mean, it really depends on the price but paying a couple of £/$ to play the full version of a game for a few days of a game that your not quite sold on paying full price on is a nice idea.
That and its real [On demand]. So much better than actually renting a game from a a rental store and you don't even have to go to the hassle of returning it.
Obviously the idea has major drawbacks.
- The rental price needs to be spot on. Its no good offering a 3 day rental for 1/4 the cost of the actual game.
- I think a lot of publishers will shoot themselves in the foot. Majority of games can be completed in a day and people would actually be put off wanting to go out and buy the full thing.
You know, I've said this before--in fact, I was going to just copy and paste but I can't find it anymore--but since it is the weekend, perhaps I can get some relevant, diplomatic discussion.
I'm not really sure if Sony is really expecting this to do great, or even well. I'm sure they are expecting to make a little profit (and that that exorbitant price, I guess it could happen), but I just have to speculate: that this is all just a testbed.
Lay down an all-digital platform now, see how it goes, how the market trends when its not a phone, and then when the PSP2 comes out, they have this great infrastructure ready to go that they actually have some experience with. They could actually be AHEAD of the curve from a non-hardware point of view, instead of spending time and money playing catchup.
Not necessarily saying the original Xbox was a test, as I have absolutely no facts/quotes/sources on that, but I think bringing it up is a good parallel to what I'm talking about here. Xbox comes out, largely considered pretty mediocre outside of being a Halo vehicle (please don't cite some random game; there are other games I enjoyed on it too, that the average person obviously didn't), but it just has this great community experience that I had never really experienced before outside of Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast. The Xbox dies, and then the 360 is born from the ashes, centered around what is universally considered the best online experience on a console to date.
Granted, this would be a very expensive test on their part, so perhaps I give them too much credit. But its silly to think that a company that size doesn't have the sense to know that the Go is going to be/has been berated and written off, especially when you factor in their inclusion of Blu-ray, a feature that is becoming more and more obvious that is was a right choice.
Anyways, early morning rambling while my coffee pulls my mind into the real world. Feel free to agree or disagree.
@LordThayer: Every console is basically a test for the next model though, Except the DS where it's not so much a test, it's more blatant money grabbing, I mean, do we really need 3 different version of the DS, or even the PSP for that matter?
The Go smells like Sony are trying to wrangle every penny out of it's customers, no resell/trade on a console game is a big turn off for a lot of people.
@DragonNinja: You legally have no right to sell on a copy of a game. It's grey law but legally when you buy a game you don't buy the game but you buy a user licence and a copy of the data, distributed on disk or by other medium. If you go on to sell the data then the games company loses out on a licensing fee that they earned by making the game.
Most people refuse to accept this but as far as second hand games go you may as well be pirating the title as far as the developers of the game are concerned. DLC is their only way to make any sort of profit from people who buy games in this way.
@rorkimaru: I'm sure there was a developer who said something like "I'd much rather you pirate the game than buy it used because then at least I can guage how many people want the game"
@LordThayer: The go is very much laying down the foundation of DD in consoles. The 3000 is still on sale so no one is forcing people to participate in this 'experiment' (so folks really should stop whining) and if the Go does well then potentially the PSP2 could be a full DD console. Hanhleds suit well to the small cheap game so it's not a far-out idea that this would happen.
I still think it's a while off getting a DD console though, Blu-Ray sizes will most likely be the norm next gen and in 5 years I still don't see the net being structuralaly and commercially viable to grab 50GB titles. And I still think people would be put off buying something for £40/$60 that doesn't really exist. [www.escapistmagazine.com] - recommend this as a good read of DD on consoles.
@DragonNinja: No we don't really need so many version of either the psp or DS but what Sony and Nintendo know is that once a new version is out there are some people that will flock to grab the latest version of the psp/ds and while that is happening their stock of the previous versions drops in price which also starts selling.
The pspgo on the other hand is as LordThayer stated, its more likely to be a setup or prototype for psp2. While it may not sell alot at least the the pspgo is being talked about (good or bad) which may either bring in new customers for the pspgo or more likely new customers the psp 3000 that will get a price cut (an assumption)
@Coollead: It may have been slightly off topic but talking about the Go as a DD only device in an article about digital rentals specific for the device is far from a left field topic. And it was about a million billion times more useful comment than yours.
Next time try contributing instead of being a prick.
@rorkimaru: No game ships with a license, and I've said in the past that precedent lawsuits such as Nintendo v. Galoob would indicate that video games are physical media and wholly owned by the end user (barring activities which break copyright, of course). Game developers saying the second hand market is bad are just scapegoating for poor sales; while there's certainly an argument that GameStop's practice of selling "used" literally days after a new release does bite into sales, the game industry has grown and profited with used game sales along the ride for decades now. It's too late to try to switch gears when nothing was done about it in the past, and I'd wager any judge would be inclined to agree so far as making used game sales illegal or somesuch.
Likewise, used game sales still keep money in the industry, and saying that a person buying used might as well just pirate is ignorant. While there is a clear argument that used sales of a release during the launch lifetime does undercut sales, to scapegoat them all is just silly. It's akin to the fashion industry saying it is hurting from Goodwill or refilling your ink cartridges is going to bring down Hewlett-Packard. A used game buyer indirectly supports the purchase of new game sales; a pirate does nothing of the sort.
@Coollead: No, no, no, you missed my point all together. I DIDN'T get to copy and paste it--had to type it all again, and it wound up being even longer :(
10/15/09
I think they're freaking out over nothing, to be honest. Netflix has a much broader appeal, it only makes sense they'd get a special deal (along with Blockbuster, who actually IS a Netflix competitor, unlike gamefly) #legal
10/14/09
They're going to have a problem with that. The other question is whether these are third-party run post offices.
None of the dozen or so post offices I've visited in Tampa have anything like that.
10/15/09
10/14/09
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10/14/09
Wow. My experience was the total opposite of yours. I kinda wish that I had the time/money to go back to them because they treated me so well. But now that I think of it I really only used the service to play games I was interested in months ago so there were always high availability for me.
10/14/09
10/14/09
If the games get broken in better packaging than the DVDs and still have a higher breaking ratio, that's just no coincidence.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
It's worth mentioning that Netflix and Blockbuster but cover their disks in basically a slim paper envelope over a tyvek sleeve. Both are considered letter size in dimension, but being rigid they are considered non-machinable as letters.
Gamefly's considerably larger, thicker ,and stiffer reinforced envelope is a different beast altogether. They are considered flats due to their thickness (hell, they are even marked as such on the envelope) but are still subject to being run through the flat sorting equipment.
10/14/09
for further reading on the complaint (and really it seems pretty legit) see [arstechnica.com]
10/14/09
I haven't seen these in NJ at all, but according to this postmaster, the USPS won't be around in 10 years anyway. "We're a dinosaur," he said.
And they really are. He also said the majority of mail they get is junk catalogs. The internet killed the pony express. They haven't adapted to the 21st century well it seems.
Why would netflix only slots for mail be against USPS policy? Seems like it would make a sorters job easier. Good to see the case is still pending and hasn't been dropped completely.
10/14/09
I wonder if I can try to cancel my mail service like Kramer tried to do.
10/14/09
10/14/09
It should be noted that they increase prices based on inflation. Any company can make money if price increases are considered "facts of life" instead of acts of greed.
10/14/09
You can get many bills paperless these days (meaning they just send you an email and you pay it online). So that would be even less mail for you.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/15/09
This used to be the biggest late night drunk argument between me and my libertarian friends in college.
10/14/09
At least, easier for me. And really, isn't that what's important?
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/15/09
On that note, I've only used Netflix for streaming. But, for now, that's not an option for games just yet.
10/15/09
@reishka: my point indeed... #legal
10/04/09
10/04/09
10/04/09
but again, it would be a nice way to try out a game, and then you could buy it if you wanted, either digital, or pay a little extra and get a boxed version. this could make demos obsolete. I think this is something Mr. Molyneux would agree with me on as a good thing!
10/04/09
I want to play more games for as much money as I can. I'm not the kind of person that likes to line my bookshelf with games, dvds, cds, ect. I feel that's just a form of boasting. To me, the satisfaction comes from the experience not holding the physical medium.
10/04/09
That and its real [On demand]. So much better than actually renting a game from a a rental store and you don't even have to go to the hassle of returning it.
Obviously the idea has major drawbacks.
- The rental price needs to be spot on. Its no good offering a 3 day rental for 1/4 the cost of the actual game.
- I think a lot of publishers will shoot themselves in the foot. Majority of games can be completed in a day and people would actually be put off wanting to go out and buy the full thing.
10/04/09
I'm not really sure if Sony is really expecting this to do great, or even well. I'm sure they are expecting to make a little profit (and that that exorbitant price, I guess it could happen), but I just have to speculate: that this is all just a testbed.
Lay down an all-digital platform now, see how it goes, how the market trends when its not a phone, and then when the PSP2 comes out, they have this great infrastructure ready to go that they actually have some experience with. They could actually be AHEAD of the curve from a non-hardware point of view, instead of spending time and money playing catchup.
Not necessarily saying the original Xbox was a test, as I have absolutely no facts/quotes/sources on that, but I think bringing it up is a good parallel to what I'm talking about here. Xbox comes out, largely considered pretty mediocre outside of being a Halo vehicle (please don't cite some random game; there are other games I enjoyed on it too, that the average person obviously didn't), but it just has this great community experience that I had never really experienced before outside of Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast. The Xbox dies, and then the 360 is born from the ashes, centered around what is universally considered the best online experience on a console to date.
Granted, this would be a very expensive test on their part, so perhaps I give them too much credit. But its silly to think that a company that size doesn't have the sense to know that the Go is going to be/has been berated and written off, especially when you factor in their inclusion of Blu-ray, a feature that is becoming more and more obvious that is was a right choice.
Anyways, early morning rambling while my coffee pulls my mind into the real world. Feel free to agree or disagree.
10/04/09
10/04/09
The Go smells like Sony are trying to wrangle every penny out of it's customers, no resell/trade on a console game is a big turn off for a lot of people.
10/04/09
Which is why the thousand series is still being sold.
10/04/09
Most people refuse to accept this but as far as second hand games go you may as well be pirating the title as far as the developers of the game are concerned. DLC is their only way to make any sort of profit from people who buy games in this way.
10/04/09
Next time, you can copy and paste your little tirade into the correct discussion, eh?
10/04/09
10/04/09
I still think it's a while off getting a DD console though, Blu-Ray sizes will most likely be the norm next gen and in 5 years I still don't see the net being structuralaly and commercially viable to grab 50GB titles. And I still think people would be put off buying something for £40/$60 that doesn't really exist.
[www.escapistmagazine.com] - recommend this as a good read of DD on consoles.
10/04/09
The pspgo on the other hand is as LordThayer stated, its more likely to be a setup or prototype for psp2. While it may not sell alot at least the the pspgo is being talked about (good or bad) which may either bring in new customers for the pspgo or more likely new customers the psp 3000 that will get a price cut (an assumption)
10/04/09
Next time try contributing instead of being a prick.
10/04/09
Likewise, used game sales still keep money in the industry, and saying that a person buying used might as well just pirate is ignorant. While there is a clear argument that used sales of a release during the launch lifetime does undercut sales, to scapegoat them all is just silly. It's akin to the fashion industry saying it is hurting from Goodwill or refilling your ink cartridges is going to bring down Hewlett-Packard. A used game buyer indirectly supports the purchase of new game sales; a pirate does nothing of the sort.
10/04/09