Gamefly Announces Shut Down Of Video Game Streaming Service
Gamefly will be shutting down its streaming service at the end of August next month. According to Variety, the service will be supported until August 31st. Accounts with streaming service will not be charged for after that date.
Gamefly will continue its disc-based rental service through the mail that the company is primarily known for. Since its inception in 2002, the company was recognized for the early Netflix-esque model of games by mail and started streaming them via Smart TVs and devices such as the Fire TV. EA announced their acquisition of the company’s cloud gaming technology 2 months ago. Here’s what EA Chief Technology Officer, Ken Moss, had to say:
Cloud gaming is an exciting frontier that will help us to give even more players the ability to experience games on any device from anywhere. We’re thrilled to bring this talented team’s expertise into EA as we continue to innovate and expand the future of games and play.”
That Israel-based team is now actively developing EA’s services, most likely leading to a similar service to become available on non-traditional platforms in the coming years. It will be interesting to see if EA will be able to position themselves in this way as it may not sit well with companies such as Microsoft and Sony as a competitor. EA is one of the biggest publishers of multi-console video games, so them adopting a method where generally popular games like FIFA and Madden are readily available could hurt the sales of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms.
Do you think Gamefly’s streaming program being shut down is making way for EA to create a similar one? Be sure to follow us on Twitter for any updates to this story and check out these other stories from Don’t Feed The Gamers:
Colin Regan239 Posts
Colin is a freelance writer for DFTG with previous bylines at other media outlets such as Twinfinite.
