GameTap expands Atari relationship

Today GameTap announced and extended deal with Atari for distribution rights to several classic and modern Atari titles. This new agreement grants GameTap rights to a selection of Atari’s stellar and renews GameTap’s rights to distribute Atari’s classic console and arcade catalog. Atari’s games will be available through GameTap’s games-on-demand service and digital retail store. A few examples of the new games headed to GameTap thanks to this new arrangement: the 2008 release of Alone In The Dark, Indigo Prophecy, King’s Bounty, the Master Of Orion series, the Neverwinter Nights series, the excellent Test Drive Unlimited, The Witcher and Arma Combat Operations.

Originally launched by TBS in 2005, GameTap went on to merge with Metaboli merged in September of 2008 to form a new global network dedicated to the digital distribution of games. Metaboli has established distribution partnerships with many of the world’s leading internet, gaming, and e-commerce portals including Virgin Media, Game, Orange, Free, Neuf Telecom, AOL, Club-Internet, fnac, Telecom Italia, Wind, Web.de, Gamesradar, Eurogamer, pcgames.de and computec.de.

PC Gaming Alliance adds five new members

The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) is not dead folks, it’s just very, very quiet. The non-profit consortium created to promote the PC Gaming Industry and be the authoritative voice of PC Gaming worldwide broke its silence today to announce that it has added new member companies to its fold - eight of them to be precise. The new members joining today are BFG Technologies, Bigfoot Networks, Flextronics, GameStop, GameTap, Gas Powered Games, Howie’s Game Shack and InstantAction.

“We welcome these new members to the PCGA, a rapidly growing organization where companies of all types can come together to expand and improve the PC gaming ecosystem,” said Randy Stude, PCGA president and Intel director, Gaming Program Office.

To find more about the PCGA visit www.pcgamingalliance.org.

Gametap Freebies Going Bye-Bye

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free right? That is what many free subscribers were thinking when they signed up Turner Broadcasting’s Gametap. But now that the site is under new management, the rules - and the free games - are about to change. Gametap announced this morning that it will be taking a ton of games out of the free games rotation and locking them away for paying gold member subscribers.

Starting next week a large chunk of the full free game offerings will require a gold membership, leaving free players with only a handful of titles to play. Here is the official word from the Gametap blog:

“You’ve got until Thursday, January 22 to either finish up what you’re playing or, if you’re smart, sign up for GameTap Gold. Your saved games will be waiting for you! Even with the economy as tough as it is right now, $59.95 for unlimited access to over 1,000 games is an absolute steal - that’s less than 17 cents a day, or less than 6 cents a game.”

It sounds like a fund drive for public television.

For those that really can not afford to buy a membership, Gametap promises to continue offering free previews of full games, though their rotation period will no doubt be a lot shorter. These games include Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, X-Com: UFO Defense, among many others to be announced.

The full list of games you will not be able to play without a gold membership (that you can currently play for free) is coming up right after the break.

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GameTap Being Sold

It’s not a rumor, it’s a fact. According to Time Warner’s latest quarterly report, Turner Broadcasting is selling its online games service GameTap, to an undisclosed company. The proof of this is under the NETWORKS (Turner Broadcasting & HBO) section of its report, which features the following surprising statement:

Operating Income climbed 18% ($115 million) to $749 million, resulting mainly from the increase in Adjusted Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization. The current year quarter included an $18 million noncash impairment of GameTap as a result of Turner’s decision to sell its on-line video game business, and the prior year quarter included a $34 million noncash impairment of the Court TV tradename as a result of rebranding the network’s name to truTV.

The timing for this is kind of odd, considering that the service just announced a new deal to carry many of THQ’s popular PC games. What we don’t know at this time is who is buying GameTap, but we’ll keep you posted.

American McGee’s Grimm, Episode One Released

The very first episode of American McGee’s Grimm is available on GameTap today, kicking off over two months of episodic content from McGee to be released on a weekly basis. Grimm weaves a series of dark fairytales influenced by a crude dwarf with a dark heart and a twisted sense of humor.

The first story to be told is “A Boy Learns What Fear Is,” a light-hearted tale about a boy’s journey into the unknown to learn the true meaning of fear. A relatively cheery tale by most accounts, it isn’t until a crude dwarf named Grimm interferes, that this boy learns what fear is all about.

Episode One is free to play on GameTap without a subscription for the first 24 hours, but future episodes will cost $3.99. The first volume of Grimm consists of eight episodes, which will be released weekly starting July 31, and ending on September 18th:

July 31: A Boy Learns What Fear Is
August 7: Little Red Riding Hood
August 14: The Fisherman and His Wife
August 21: Puss In Boots
August 28: The Girl Without Hands
September 4: Godfather Death
September 11: The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs
September 18: Beauty and the Beast

For more info, check out GameTap - and play the game while you can for free.

Gamecock, GameTap Sign Deal

Gamecock Media Group has signed a new partnership with GameTap, giving the game portal rights to the publisher’s titles for digital download in GameTap’s online store, as well as for subscription and ad-supported play. As part of the new agreement, future titles, such as Legendary and Velvet Assassin will also be available on GameTap. All games will be added GameTap’s online digital retail storefront at launch and later added to the subscription service and ad-supported website. Current titles like Stronghold Crusader Extreme and Insecticide will be available almost immediatly.

GameTap Scores THQ Games

GameTap has inked a long-term partnership with THQ that includes worldwide subscription play and digital download rights for a wide selection of the publisher’s games for Windows PC. Additionally under the new agreement, some THQ games will also be made available for free play on GameTap’s ad-supported website. As part of the new agreement, GameTap will now feature titles from the THQ and ValuSoft including 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.

No word on which games will be available for free play.