GameFly VP says online passes have had “very little” impact on business

Online passes that reward customers for purchasing new copies of video games have had "very little" impact on GameFly, a mail-based game rental service, the company's senior vice president of business development and content, Sean Spector told GamesIndustry International.

"It's probably frustrating for some, but the overall impact is negligible," Spector said.

Services that provide incentive to purchase and keep new games could potentially harm GameFly, whose games don't include the passes. Publishers often include the passes with new retail games, offering free content and incentive to purchase the games. When Mass Effect 3 released in March, for example, its online pass provided free access to the game's multiplayer component. In May, the game's first DLC pack was released free to those with online passes.

While GameFly sells downloadable PC games and recently released its first mobile game, Spector said the company will "proceed on the console side as we have always done — listen to our customer and give them good value for our service."