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 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. Their answer - they only guarantee access for 2 years. When they did this, I lost access to over 40 games I had bought and paid for. 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. 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. Originally they would send me the download link and activation key in my confirmation email. I purchased about 150 pc games from them over the years, most at 15.00 to 20.00 each. Years ago I joined Gamehouse/Real Network. 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. Meanwhile, Gamehouse is a good place to go for casual gaming and as far as I know, a safe and reliable one. 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. Not that it's a bad thing, but there's a limit to how many hidden object games there can be in the world. After all, there has been very little development in sites like this for many years. 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. 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 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. 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.įour 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.

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