GameFly has offered console gamers a way to receive and play game titles via a mail order monthly subscription service for some time. However the company has been expanding into other businesses for the past few years. It acquired the Shacknews.com gaming news web site a couple of years ago and more recently it acquired the Direct2Drive PC game download service from IGN. Today GameFly announced plans to add a new feature for its monthly console game subscribers. The feature will allow those subscribers to also gain access to a library of PC game titles via download and play them as much as they want. Think of it as GameFly"s version of Netflix" streaming video service.
In a chat with Joystiq, GameFly co-founder Sean Spector said that the company has already signed a number of PC game publishers to join its Unlimited PC Play service but declined to name those publishers yet. The beta for the new feature is scheduled to begin with an event in Los Angeles on September 8 but people who want to join the beta can sign up at GameFly"s web site. GameFly will launch a new digital client in relation to this new service that will also have gaming news, an archive of game videos and screenshots and also a social networking feature where fans can discuss games.
Spector says in the Joystiq article that he expects about 100 PC games to be available for the beta of the new service and will expand to hundreds of PC game titles when the service officially launches sometime this holiday.