GameHouse

CUSTOMER SUPPORT DOES NOT EXISTS. THEY WANT TO SEND YOU TO A SITE YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR TECH SUPPORT. THIS COMPANY IS A RIP OFF STAY AWAY DISHONEST. 6 pages of games! My Profile
NetScreenname:*******

Years ago I joined Gamehouse/Real Network. I purchased about 150 pc games from them over the years, most at 15.00 to 20.00 each. Originally they would send me the download link and activation key in my confirmation email.

Then along the way they changed how they did things, and developed a 'game manager' so when we purchased a game it automatically downloaded, installed and activated. This worked ok as well, until they shut down for a month and revamped their systems 2 years ago, and removed dozens of games from their website.

When they did this, I lost access to over 40 games I had bought and paid for. Their answer - they only guarantee access for 2 years. I have the installation files for many of my games, so I asked them to send me my activation keys, after all I had paid for these. Nope, they refused. They did send me a bunch of codes for free games that were useless to me since all the games they were developing were meant for windows 8 and I run XP, so they wouldn't work.

I insisted I wanted my keys, and in response, they cancelled all the codes they sent me and refuse to send me my keys. So there I sit. As long as this pc holds up I can play the games I bought, but if this pc dies, I am screwed. I lose a whole whack of games.

They have multiple law suits against them for overcharging their customers etc, so it isn't just me. Gaming isn't the only thing Real Networks is into. Needless to say I don't belong to their site anymore, and I don't buy games from them now either. Their customer service department is located in India and most times these people can't even understand what you are asking them let alone be able to solve problems.

I now belong to and buy from Big Fish Games, who have fantastic customer service and make any game you buy from them available for life. No losing them because they decide to delete games from their servers. So any new gamers who are looking to buy pc games online, Stay Away From Gamehouse. Do yourself a huge favour and deal with Big Fish instead. Games are cheaper, lots of freebies, and you won't be disappointed.

Gamehouse is the gaming arm of RealNetworks, which is itself one of the oldest web multimedia icons and developer of RealAudio and RealVideo formats and the RealPlayer media player.

Four days ago, at the time of writing, Gamehouse acquired a "social gaming" company which has been behind many successful games at some place called Facebook, whatever that is. RealNetworks has been uncomfortable that it's not into social gaming that much yet, and ought to be, because that's where the future of online gaming lies. Perhaps.

Gamehouse itself is a long-established family venue featuring downloadable and online games, of a casual nature, and today especially those hidden object games which are so popular with the makers of spectacles and magnifying glasses.

RealNetworks has previously indicated that it has plans to spin off the gaming aspect of its business, so it may be that this acquisition is an attempt to convert Gamehouse into a more social, more Web 2.0 affair. After all, there has been very little development in sites like this for many years. Not that it's a bad thing, but there's a limit to how many hidden object games there can be in the world. Come to think of it, maybe not. But you know what I mean. Social gaming opens up vast new (and hopefully profitable) horizons with the potential of engaging thousands of players at once, while the current games are largely if not entirely one-player affairs.

Meanwhile, Gamehouse is a good place to go for casual gaming and as far as I know, a safe and reliable one. I can't comment on memberships or subscriptions or clubs or anything like that, but as a venue for casual amusement this is up there amongst the leaders still.

I recently had a boot problem with my computer. I guess that's what you call it. I turned it on and got a black screen, no desktop. I took it into a computer repair shop and they called the next day and told me the computer was fine, but it had around 300 adware in it probably from downloading games. They removed them with AdwCleaner and everything was fine. When I got the computer home I noticed when I tried to launch a GH game from a desktop icon I got the trial / own this game unlock popup on all of them?!. I logged in and got nothing. I went to the game website and logged in and retried, nothing. I decided to try uninstalling and downloading a game. I couldn't download from the My Games list. This is nuts! I decided to go to the game page and download the trial. That worked. When the popup came up I entered the log in info and the game unlocked. I also noticed at the top of the popup some statement about Trimedia. Trimedia is adware! I used AdwCleaner and it found 1 piece of adware, Trimedia. After, I went back to the desktop icon and again had to unlock the game again. So what this amounts to is you have to accept adware if you want to play GH games. I can still launch my BigFish, Shockwave and Amazon games. There might have been adware installed when downloading from these companies but you don't have to keep it.