GamersGate VOID is Live, Play for Free After Watching Ad

GamersGate is allowing you the ability to download and play games at the expense of watching an ad before you play...

Digital distributor GamersGate just recently launched VOID, an interesting new concept to digital gaming as it allows players to “rent” a game for free at the expense of watching an ad every time the game is launched.

All that’s necessary to use VOID is a GamersGate account. After selecting the “VOID” tab, users will be able to see the array of games that are available for a VOID download. Each user can only have a limited number of game slots to fill with VOID. After adding a game to their slots, users will be able to download the game an unlimited number of times. After a month’s time, users will have the option to swap out a slot for another game.

Each time a game is booted up, a quick ad will play before the player is allowed access to the game.

Speaking from personal experience, VOID actually works pretty well. I’m not a fan of ads, but the VOID ads are relatively non-intrusive. So far for me, the ads have been a hilariously outdated World of Warcraft: Cataclysm spot that plays each time I boot up my game.

Although the selection of games available via VOID is relatively slim, I think the concept is a great model for videogame rentals. I think it definitely is a good alternative to try and prevent piracy through sheer convenience.

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7

jimmysmitty , June 1, 2012 9:32 AM

Interesting idea but I feel it might go the away of Hulu. Started just like this, all free content with some adds then it went "Premium" to get anything actually good.
1

plznote , June 1, 2012 9:41 AM

I think it is a great idea to replace our dying beloved demos. *sniff*
1

Darkerson , June 1, 2012 12:02 PM

I gave it a whirl, but they only have a few decent games, with the majority being so so. Still a nice idea.
0

yzf197 , June 1, 2012 12:43 PM

what a waste of time, the only game i like on there is painkiller, and i'm not going to replay that just to watch a minute long ad. hope they enjoy spamming my email, because that's all their getting out of me unless they ad some GOG level material.
3

tomfreak , June 1, 2012 12:55 PM

Launch the game with ads, go the kitchen make coffee/tea, come back = win!
1

blackjackcf , June 1, 2012 1:21 PM

yzf197what a waste of time, the only game i like on there is painkiller, and i'm not going to replay that just to watch a minute long ad. hope they enjoy spamming my email, because that's all their getting out of me unless they ad some GOG level material.

Yes, their selection is slim. I think it's definitely an interesting concept though, hence why I thought it was newsworthy. It's definitely something you'd look into if they were to increase their selection, no?
1

Pennanen , June 1, 2012 2:23 PM

Now all we need is adblock plus.
0

ddemon , June 1, 2012 4:00 PM

This idea reminds me of left4dead 2 on Steam as the game is quite cheap (was $20Au when i got it, the best zombie game ever is well worth that ...lol), you get all the L4D 1 content with it, and the online multi player is all free but you do get an add every time you enter a multi player game, seams like a logical progression to this kind of gaming.
0

psycho sykes , June 1, 2012 6:56 PM

Again with the potential of a Hulu.com-esque path for this one. Still, if it remains free and global and increases their selection pool, then it's definitely something very newsworthy. In fact, I might stop buying games by then!
0

djscribbles , June 1, 2012 9:25 PM

Someday soon everything will be available for free via ad supported; including cars, clothes, food, internet services, etc.

5 years later, the advertising bubble will collapse, as corporate leadership begins to realize that nobody is actually buying anything anymore leading to global chaos and panic as all the marketing execs move to a recently evacuated private island with 95% of the globes net worth.

They will live like kings, lording their wealth over the poor nations of the world for approx 10 years, until they realize nobody on their island can actually do anything constructive; meanwhile, bottle-caps become the new global currency for the remainder of the poor-broken nations of the world.

So start stocking your bottle-caps today folks. Definitely gonna happen, don't say I didn't warn you. /endboredom
0

4745454b , June 1, 2012 9:29 PM

I'll check it out. Even if I don't like any of the games it doesn't hurt to support this kind of thing. And even if it does go premium as long as the price is right I might even continue. I could even see a 3 free and $8 (like netflix?) for an extra ? slots. With a big enough game selection this could be great.
0

jackbling , June 1, 2012 10:40 PM

To be fair, they came down hard on Hulu in terms of licensing. Hulu Plus is the only reason they are still around.
0

anonymous@guest , July 10, 2012 4:59 AM

It would be nice if we could sort VOID games by popularity, release date, etc. I went ahead and did it to practice my python programming. Here are the results for games with 10 or more ratings, in case anyone is interested:

HOI/hearts-of-iron 4.8 (17 votes cast)
KB/kings-bounty-the-legend-fg 4.6 (21 votes cast)
FO/flatout 4.6 (15 votes cast)
HOI2/hearts-of-iron-2 4.5 (36 votes cast)
EU2/europa-universalis-2 4.5 (18 votes cast)
MAJESTY/majesty-gold-edition 4.5 (14 votes cast)
ROME/europa-universalis-rome 4.4 (19 votes cast)
MOW/men-of-war 4.3 (25 votes cast)
CK/crusader-kings 4.3 (23 votes cast)
UFOET/ufo-extraterrestrials 4.1 (37 votes cast)
CTKC/crusaders-thy-kingdom-come 4.1 (36 votes cast)
ELVEN/elven-legacy 4 (50 votes cast)
FLOCK/flock 4 (19 votes cast)
HORIZON/dark-horizon 3.9 (25 votes cast)
TROY/battle-for-troy 3.9 (23 votes cast)
TC2M/take-command-2nd-manassas 3.9 (18 votes cast)
DTS/death-to-spies 3.9 (17 votes cast)
SILENT/silent-heroes 3.8 (26 votes cast)
FT/freight-tycoon 3.8 (22 votes cast)
FW/fantasy-wars 3.8 (10 votes cast)
SW/star-wolves 3.7 (24 votes cast)
AOB/age-of-booty 3.6 (15 votes cast)
DVZ/dark-void-zero 3.6 (13 votes cast)
AC130/ac-130-operation-devastation 3.5 (42 votes cast)
SR1/space-rangers 3.5 (23 votes cast)
KFC/korea-forgotten-conflict 3.5 (21 votes cast)
VC/valhalla-chronicles 3.5 (18 votes cast)
DVOID/dark-void 3.4 (51 votes cast)
PKING/puzzle-kingdoms 3.4 (14 votes cast)
ATAXI/ancient-taxi 3.4 (12 votes cast)
GLISE/gods-lands-of-infinity-special-edition 3.4 (11 votes cast)
VVS/vivisector-beast-within 3.3 (19 votes cast)
YAE/you-are-empty 3.3 (12 votes cast)
ALEXG/alex-gordon 3.2 (16 votes cast)
AF/astro-fury 3.2 (13 votes cast)
ABD/action-ball-deluxe 3.2 (11 votes cast)
HU2009/hunting-unlimited-2009 3.1 (23 votes cast)