turner-broadcasting posts

Late yesterday the GameTap web site finally made its relaunch official as the game download service debuted a number of new features and a third mode of pricing. However it appears that the site also caught some first day bugs as many users could not log in, found errors, and had poor performance from the new client.

The site's official blog has posted up a note saying the company is aware of the issues and that they were in fact caused by a "technical outage and not related to the beta status of the website." At the moment it seems some users are still dealing with the issues.

Earlier this month we reported that the game download service GameTap was planning to launch a major revamp of their business. With that relaunch now scheduled for sometime next week, the service's official blog site has begun revealing some of what they have planned. One of the changes is the service's pricing structure.

Previously there had been just two types of service on GameTap; one where you played a selection of games for free and the other where you had access to all of the games in the GameTap library for a monthly fee. When the revamp happens, GameTap will have three tiers of service.There will still be a free service and a premium level where you can play all the games for $9.95 a month. However there will also be a new Classic Pack service which will allow people to play all of GameTap's console, arcade and DOS games for $4.95 a month.

By the way, the annual fee for the premium service will be going up to $79.95 a year after the revamp. Current annual subscribers will still have their $59.96 fee locked for life. You have until the end of the day Sunday to sign up at the current price point.

With the sale of the GameTap game download service from Turner Broadcasting to Metaboli, people have been waiting to see if any major changes would be coming to the service. The short answer is, "Yes," The long answer is over at GameTap's official blog site today.

The blog announces, "In just over 2 weeks, you will have access to a completely re-designed GameTap website full of new features, an improved digital download store, and a new way to access and launch your games." Among the additions are Desktop and Start Menu shortcut support for every game you get from GameTap, support for in-browser playing in Firefox, faster loading times, an updated store with "a better selection and competitive prices." and more.

However there's some bad news. Some current GameTap features won't be supported at first in the new revamped version. The big one is Mac OS X support which will likely not please the many Mac gamers out there. There's no word on when the Mac support will be put into the new GameTap.

If you enjoy playing the free games that Gametap has been offering on their game download site, you had better hurry to play your favorites now. The service's official blog site has posted up word that they will be removing nearly 100 games from their free list starting on January 22 and placed in the site's Gold premium (i.e. paid) version.

The folks at Gametap try to make a positive spin on this, saying that they will still offer over 40 free games and they will continue offering one week free trial versions of their Gold titles. As we have previously reported, Gametap's owner Turner Broadcasting announced a deal in September 2008 that will see Gametap's ownership transfered to European based Metaboli.

On Wednesday we reported that Turner Broadcasting was selling off its Gametap online game download service to Metaboli, a European company that has a similar business model (Turner will have a minority stake in the new business arrangement, however). Variety chatted with Metaboi CEO Pierre Gaudet about the deal and it looks like one of Gametap's unique features may be going by the wayside.

That feature is launching original games on Gametap such as Telltale's Sam and Max series and more recently American McGee's Grimm. There hasn't been any announcements on new titles coming from the service and it looks like Gaudet might put that aspect of Gametap to bed, saying, "We are not doing that in Metaboli and for the time being it's not in our plans." Telltale Games might decide to simply release future episodes of Sam and Max on their own for the PC as they have done for their second epiodic series Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People.

It's been expected for a little while now but today Turner Broadcasting has announced that it is now selling its Gametap PC game download/subscription service over to European based Metaboli, the owners of their own game download provider. Gametap will continue to use its name and web site for its US operations while Metaboli's name will be used for their European business. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Turner Broadcasting launched Gametap in 2005 allowing folks to play older PC games and even old console games under PC emulation for a monthly fee. Later the company allowed folks to play a number of their games for free (with ad support) and also offered permanent paid downloads of games. They also released new and original titles like the Sam and Max series and more recently American McGee's Grimm. Turner will continue to support and maintain the Gametap web site until early 2009 when Metaboli will take over completely. Gametap's US offices in Atlanta will still remain under the new Metaboli ownership deal and Turner will be an equity investor in the business.

GameTap, the broadband entertainment network brought to you by Turner Broadcasting System, just announced a long-term partnership with THQ. The joint effort includes worldwide subscription play and digital download rights for a wide selection of games for Windows PC. Plus, some of THQ games will be made available for free to play on GameTap's ad-supported website.

GameTap will now feature titles from the THQ and ValuSoft catalogues, including critically acclaimed games such as Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40K, Red Faction, Supreme Commander, Titan Quest, Saints Row 2, PuzzleQuest and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

[via email press release]

Late in May, Turner Broadcasting's game download service Gametap announced it was shutting down its editorial portion of the service which led to the layoffs of a number of well respected veteran game journalists. Since then there have been rumors of Gametap shutting down completely by December due to lack of revenue. However our sister site Game Daily chatted with Gametap's vice president of content Rich Sanchez who "categorically denies" that Gametap is in danger of being shut down.

Sanchez, in fact, states that their move to concentrate on game downloads has helped Gametap to pare down costs. He declined to say if the company was profitable saying only that their current numbers are in line with their current business plan. Gametap apparently has plans to announced a major partnership in a couple of weeks (perhaps in time for E3) that Sanchez claims "should put to bed any notion that we're not active in the digital distribution space." Gametap also plans to launch the weekly 24 part game series American McGee's Grimm starting late this month.