If you're the kind of person who likes to play videogames and not have to pay for the priviledge, I have some bad news. In an announcement on Wednesday, Gametap revealed that they will be scaling back the size of their free offerings in an effort to encourage more users to sign up for their pay service.
While it has long been commonplace for the company to cycle games into and out of the subscriber-only section of the site, the number of titles available to be played for free has generally hovered around a hundred. With the new changes, that number will drop closer to forty.
With Gametap changing hands from Time-Warner to Metaboli, it was certain that some changes were going to be coming down the pipe. This is a disappointing one, however, and I would not be surprised to discover if it alienates people who had been considering a Gold membership. Not to mention that there are a lot of really great games being dragged away.
If you've been playing games for free on GameTap, you're running out of time. The free games in question are being locked up on January 22 so you might want to get cracking. Hit the jump for a complete list of titles which will no longer be gratis at that time.
1942
1st Division Manager
3 Count Bout
Art of Fighting
Astrosmash
Bagh Chal
Ball 7 Deluxe
Baseball Stars Professional
Battle of Europe
Bee 52
Black Tiger
Blast Miner
BloodRayne
Brian Lara Cricket 2007
Bust-A-Move Again
Cannon Fodder
Captain Commando
Captain Dynamo
CJ in the USA
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
D.N.A.
Daikatana
DarkStalkers®: The Night Warriors®
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
Disciples II: Rise of the Elves Gold
DJ Puff’s Volcanic Capers
Dracula Twins
Fallout
Fast Lanes Bowling
Fastlane Pinball
Fatal Fury
Flip Words 2
Football Frenzy
Ghosts’N Goblins
Ghouls’N Ghosts
Grand Prix Simulator
Grell & Falla
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Ikari Warriors
Jewelcraft
Kamikaze
King of the Monsters
King of the Monsters 2
Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle
Knights of the Round
Lara Croft Tomb Raider®: Legend
Lazer Force
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2
Little Puff in Dragonland
Marine Park Empire
Mean Machine
Mega Man®: The Power Battle
Mercs
Metal Slug
Metal Slug 2
Miami Chase
Mig-29 Soviet Fighter
Morning’s Wrath
Motocross
Mr. Robot
Murray Mouse - Supercop
Mutation Nation
Nemesis of the Roman Empire
Olli & Lissa 3
Poltergeist
Pop-A-Tronic
Prehistoric Isle in 1930
Prince Clumsy
Pro Boxing Simulator
Pro Skateboard Simulator
Psychonauts
Puzzled
Qix
Rainbow Islands The Story of Bubble Bobble 2
Rally Cross Simulator
Rampage
Rastan
Restaurant Empire
Rogue Trooper
Sacred Gold
Samurai Shodown
Second Sight
Sensible Soccer 2 006
Shark! Shark!
Shock Troopers
Slightly Magic
Street Fighter® II’: Champion Edition
Stuntman Seymour
Super Qix
Texas Hold ‘Em Poker
The King of Fighters ‘95
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Tilt
Tube-It
Twinkle Star Sprites
Warlords Battlecry III
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
1:00 AM on 01.18.2009
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Looks like Bubble Bobble will be on there, at least. That's great news even though I personally have Taito Legends on PC.
I'm also glad I bought Fallout from GOG and not followed everyone else by playing it on Gametap, else I'd be really pissed right now.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE TAKING TWINKLE STAR SPRITES OFF THE FREE LIST
but as long as the Grimm episodes are free, I'm good.
I wanted to get a year-subscription for gametap, but then I discovered that they don't serve outside the US of A *facepalm*
(I wanted to go into more detail about why I love GameTap, but every time I tried, it sounded like a bad advertisement, so I chose not to)
For me, I just want them to stay in business, so I'm OK with shrinking the free games selection if that helps... But I think I'm biased.
Steam is irrelevant in this scenario. GameTap lets you pay one price for every game on the service, so really its cheaper. Basically, it's the price of buying a cheaper game on Steam every month.
(Not that I don't love Steam, because I do. $5 Bioshock was an awesome deal.)
Cause if it's the first, THEN I can see the anger. If not, this only makes me consider getting a subscription more.
But if they want to get more subscribers...that could help a bit.
..
But wait a moment. I have those game on hard drive. Yep. And I need to connect to Gametap to play them. Yep. So will I be able to play them, or will only the new ones not get the download option? Or is there written about this and I have not seen it?
... Is there anything good left?
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