If you are looking forward to Fallout 3 but are either too young to remember the original or just fancy reliving a genuine no-messing-about classic, GameTap is offering up Fallout for free.

You will have to sign up with GameTap to get at the goods, and you can expect they will probably ask if you want to start paying for their premium service at some point.

There is a slight bug in GameTap's implementation of the game that means the screen will occasionally go blank (fixable with a few key presses) but whaddaya want? Its free, and its one of the games you need to at least pretend that you have played to avoid embarrassment at dinner parties.

Fallout [GameTap via Shacknews]

Turner Broadcasting and European digital distribution company Metaboli are teaming up to take GameTap global. A partnership between the two companies will eventually result in Metaboli managing the service in both the U.S. and Europe, managing the GameTap name in the U.S. while being managed under the Metaboli name across the pond. Turner Broadcasting had previously indicated plans to offload the service altogether last month, but now will remain on as an equity investor in the combined company once an initial transition period has passed.

"GameTap is a significant strategic addition to our portfolio of established online gaming services in Europe," said Pierre Gaudet, CEO of Paris-based Metaboli. "The addition of GameTap provides us a foothold in the U.S. market; valuable content and an established brand that integrate well with our existing operations; and a partner with whom we are honored to be in business."

See? All's well that ends well. Our little GameTap is just growing up and flexing its wings. Let's just hope we don't find its broken corpse at the base of the tree when this is all over.

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Time Warner revealed in its quarterly earnings statement today that GameTap owner Turner has decided to sell off the subscription model gaming service. That release noted an "$US 18 million noncash impairment" — read: write-off — as a result of the decision to lose GameTap. It did not name a buyer.

GameTap closed down its editorial division earlier this year to "focus the business on our biggest strength, which is our game catalogue" The service also recently dropped Myst Online from its line-up, lobbing control back to its creators.

It most recently launched American McGee's Grimm.

Time Warner Inc. Reports Second-Quarter 2008 Results [BusinessWire via Gamasutra]

GameTap has just launched the first chapter of the first volume of American McGee's Grimm, the twisted fairy tale adventure series from America's most similarly-named developer. The first episode is called "A Boy Learns What Fear Is", which in the context of twisted fairy tales gives me chills just thinking about it.

"The opportunity to work with GameTap to develop truly unique content in this new episodic format has been a dream come true," said American McGee, creative director and founder of Spicy Horse Games. "Grimm is a fairy tale adventure that incorporates innovative, mainstream play mechanics with classic elements such as platforming, power-ups, easter-eggs, and more. Grimm offers something for the cranky dwarf in all of us."

The first installment is available to play now for free via GameTap, while the remaining episodes will be free for the first 24 hours as well as available for purchase at $US 3.99 a piece. Remember, if it says American McGee in the title, you know it's...most likely a video game of some sort.

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GameTap is on a roll! Just yesterday they announced a partnership with THQ to bring their full line of PC titles to the service and now they've gotten themselves mixed up with the bad crowd over at Gamecock Media Group. The two companies have entered into a partnership to digitally distribute GC's wares via the magic of the internet, both in fully purchased form and via the standard GameTap subscription service.

"Gamecock is committed to providing gamers with original titles from the most talented developers," said Gamecock's 'El Presidente' Harry Miller. "With the growth and acceptance of digital download, gamers now have greater access to original titles. By partnering with GameTap, we have another chance to ensure that gamers can find and play great games made by independent developers."

Both current and future titles will be made available for the service, from the intentionally buggy Insecticide to the sexy spy action of Velvet Assassin. If that doesn't interest you, then I offer the director's cut headline for this story, "GameTap Gets Stuffed With Cock".

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While Turner Broadcasting's GameTap service gave us a scare awhile back by cutting off it's editorial arm, the game download side of things is still as strong as ever, and growing even strong still as they announce a long-term partnership with THQ to include the publisher's games on the service. This will add existing games like Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40K, Titan Quest and Red Faction to the service, while securing future titles such as Saint's Row 2.

"Our new partnership with GameTap allows both a brand new audience and fans alike to enjoy our titles and franchise games online," said Adrienne Lauer, National Sales Director, Market Development for THQ, "Digital distribution is a great way to extend the reach of our properties and GameTap is an ideal outlet for this effort."

See? GameTap knows what it's doing. The editorial content always seemed unnecessary to me anyway. More games is good! Hit the jump for the full PR.

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Cyan Worlds said it's formulated a plan to bring Myst Online back to its fans, after GameTap shunted control of the property back to its creators.

Cyan CTO Mark "Chogon" DeForest said in a community board letter that despite having a plan in place, cheerfully titled the "Myst Online: Restoration Experiment (MORE)", there are some "hurdles to overcome". Among the necessary compromises will be an implementation of a $US 25 fee for a six month subscription.

"We are not trying to make any money on this at this stage - but we do need to cover some of the costs", he said.

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Once Upon A Time, American McGee decided to create an episodic game based on fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Beauty and the Beast with a dark twist.

Better still, McGee decided that those episodes, their are eight in the first volume, will be free to play for the first 24 hours of release. The best is that the very first episode, A Boy Learns What Fear Is, will be permanently free when it hits on July 31.

Those who want to play the rest of the games episodes at their leisure will have to sign up for the GameTap Gold service. Not a bad idea. It certainly shows just how much faith GameTap has in the game.

Hit the jump for the break down of episodes and scans from the press release story book that GameTap sent along today. Be warned, it ends with everyone dying!

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As we reported earlier, the latest twist in the long and difficult life of Myst Online: Uru Live now sees the game handed back to its creators, Cyan Worlds, who said they'll relaunch the game later this year. The reason for GameTap surrendering the project? The company says it's just better for the fans.

"Cyan Worlds has been a great partner to GameTap", said content VP and creative director Rick Sanchez. "It's just the right thing to do, giving Cyan and the fans the opportunity to continue to enjoy this rich universe that has become a second home to many of its inhabitants."

The fan-favourite Uru Live getting shifted out of GameTap's portfolio for good comes just after Turner's content delivery network shuttered its editorial division and canceled its Galactic Command publishing deal with outspoken developer Derek Smart.

Amid all these issues, we asked Sanchez if there might be some difficulties at GameTap:

Sanchez reiterated that the editorial closing was so GameTap could focus more on other areas, which he detailed. "The reason we are moving away from editorial content is to focus our energies and resources on building our game library and new initiatives such as browser based games and expanded community features", he said.

"Our model hasn't changed, we will continue to offer our paid subscription service of more than 1000 games, ad-supported free play on GameTap.com, and titles for purchase via digital download in our online store."

Myst Online: Uru Live has had somewhat of a difficult life. The online multiplayer component of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst never made it out of the beta testing phase before being canceled in 2004. Then in 2006, Turner Broadcasting's GameTap service revived Uru Live, officially launching the game in February 2007 only to discontinue operation a year later. Now GameTap has given the publishing rights for the game back to Myst creators Cyan Worlds, who plan to relaunch Myst Online later this year.

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