As online gaming streaming services, such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now, continue to grow and add an even wider variety of video games monthly, the video game streaming enterprise is becoming increasingly competitive. This year, many video game retailers and companies are starting to feel the pressure, like Gamestop who was having buyout talks earlier this year and is now also shutting down its Powerup Elite Pro Program. And now GameFly has announced that it will be shutting down its video game streaming services at the end of this month.
For all Gamefly subscribers, the last day of support for the streaming service will be August 31, 2018, and accounts will not be charged again after that date. Gamefly’s streaming service delivered video games to a number of supported smart TVs and streaming media players, which could be played with a controller or a smartphone. Despite shutting down the streaming service, though, Gamefly will continue its disc-based game rentals, which the company has been doing for over 15 years.
Gamefly has not announced why it is shutting down its streaming service, but after Electronic Arts acquired the Gamefly streaming service team in Israel and the technology they have developed earlier this year, there are some speculations surrounding EA’s involvement in Gamefly’s decision. According to an EA spokesperson, however, EA has not been involved in any decisions around the termination of the streaming service and Gamefly’s decision to stop its streaming service occurred before EA’s purchase of the streaming technology.
Of course, one cannot deny that the launch of EA’s own video game service earlier this week, called Origin Access Premier, raises further speculations surrounding Gamefly’s recent decision to terminate part of its own service. The introduction of video game streaming has certainly changed the nature of video game retail, and as the number of video game streaming services continues to grow, many companies may need to find various ways to adapt in order to stay in business.
