GameFly Gets Digital Distribution

Now owned by GameFly.

A change in the digital distribution market recently occurred when GameFly, the game rental subscription service, announced it's acquiring Direct2Drive, the digital distribution portal owned by IGN. There's no word on whether this will mean any changes to the service. Any wise company would keep things running the way they are for a while, at least, until they had a chance to analyze things.

This is a way for GameFly to expand beyond disc-based console games into the PC market. Will they consider renting PC games? Streaming games? Their business model is looking a trifle uncertain in the long-term, as the console market continues to shrink. The real threat is the pernicious spread of the free-to-play game... no one would bother to rent one of those. GameFly is smart to see that they need to diversify their revenue to cope with the changing marketplace of tomorrow.

This, too, is part of what marketing should do. Effective marketers need to be aware of what's happening in the years ahead, so they can craft their marketing messages more effectively, and also so they can guide their companies to change with the marketplace. Marketers should be closely watching the events in their industry so they can tell the rest of their company what's going to happen next.