Fans willing to give digital download a try when THQ’s Darksiders releases on the PC this week will get a free game for their trouble, scoring Titan Quest, Red Faction: Guerrilla or Company of Heroes, depending on where you buy. More »
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GameTap has an all-new service! Completely redesigned, from the ground up. And while it stuttered, fell over and died for a little bit at launch, it’s now all good.
In November of 2007, Gametap promised to continue their Re/Visioned animation series, with comic book talent taking on classic Atari 2600 games. Now those shorts have finally seen the light of day, and they’re brilliant.
After a year spent rolling out premium games for non-playing customers to play for free, online gaming service GameTap has announced that they’re now beginning to roll them right back in.
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.
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.
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]
