Gamefly’s Advertisements

Months ago, I wrote a positive article about Gamefly. I am now reconsidering. Today I went to their site with my son to choose new games. First, I was disgusted by the advertisements on their website. Second, my child wanted to watch a game trailer and it began playing a hidious preview for a Mature rated game called “Shutter”. It is impossible to watch the game trailers without being subjected to these gross previews. Update: I have posted their very nice and positive response to this problem below.

I sent Gamefly the following complaint:

I am a long time member and am considering canceling my account for this reason. As a mother of two children, I am disappointed with the graphic advertisements on your website. I can’t even watch the game trailers with my kids because the previews before them are sometimes horrifying (shutter for example). My children like to go on Gamefly and pick out their games, but this is not possible because the advertisement pictures have BLOOD and GRAPHIC IMAGES. After this month I will be canceling if this is not corrected.

UPDATE  I’m satisfied with Gamefly’s response on this matter. Here it is:

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding our recent advertising campaign. While we screen the advertisements before they appear on the site, we do understand your desire to shield your children from inappropriate content. We will evaluate future advertisements with your concerns in mind.

If you would like your account to present GameFly Advertisements only, you can use GameFly’s Parental Controls. To activate this feature, please visit the “My Account” link, http://www.gamefly.com/member/account.asp, and select “Parental Controls”. By adjusting the game and UMD movie ratings, the only ads displayed will be ones promoting the GameFly service.

We would like to thank you again for bringing this to our attention in a thoughtful manner. Feel free to contact me if you have any further issues or concerns.

Sincerely,

Terri – Vice President
GameFly Customer Service
Email: support@gamefly.com