gamefly

GameFly acquires Direct2Drive PC digital distribution service

Mail-order game disc renter GameFly Inc. has announced that it will acquire Direct2Drive, the PC game digital distributor service owned by News Corp. subsidiary IGN Entertainment. The announcement, first reported by Gamefly-owned gaming news site Shacknews, confirms rumors about the acquisition that surfaced earlier in the week.

The two companies seem like a reasonable fit. GameFly is essentially the Netflix of video games, renting out discs for game consoles through the mail. Direct2Drive is a competitor to Valve Software's market-dominating Steam PC gaming download service. Market data on digital distribution services is scarce since the companies don't share … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1453: The poke lobby (Podcast)

On today's show, prep is minimal, but the news is pretty interesting: Amazon's cloud service went down overnight, taking lots of sites with it -- including the Cydia jailbreak app delivery store. Apple blew it out with earnings, and so did Verizon -- and HTC Thunderbolt sales. We continue to debunk the iPhone tracking "discovery," but that doesn't mean we're not worried about the data. And Amazon's increasingly imminent tablet, too. --Molly

Free books for your Kindle

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon.com launches a library lending program for its Kindle e-reader

Toshiba's tablet will come out in June in Japan and shortly thereafter abroad

eBay purchases geolocation service Where

Google launches Earth Builder for cloud storage of geographic and geospacial data

Gamefly wins its case against the U.S. Postal Service

Class action suit means Facebook's Beacon just won't go away

A class action lawsuit filed earlier this week targets Facebook and eight of the participants in Beacon, its ill-fated advertising product that shared information about third-party site activity with the social network. The set of 20 plaintiffs, mostly residents of Texas, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday. Named as defendants are Facebook, as well as current or former Beacon participants Blockbuster, Fandango (owned by Comcast), Overstock.com, STA Travel, Zappos, Hotwire (owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp), and GameFly.

A Facebook representative told CNET News on Thursday that the company had … Read more

GamePie: GameFly's social Facebook application

GameFly has launched a new Facebook application, called GamePie, which allows gamers to share what they are currently playing; review and score video games that they have played in the past; and make a wish list of games that they want to play in the future. While GamePie does not feature any direct hook-ins to the GameFly service, it aims to build a better community around games and allow for better sharing and discovery.

During a walk through of the service with GameFly co-founder Sean Spector and product manager Jason Wade, they emphasized that this is not a money-making venture … Read more