Direct2Drive Introduces Tell a Friend Program to Create Customer Loyalty

Direct2Drive is one of the players in the digital distribution space on the PC and aims to create more interest in the video games that it delivers to players through the newly launched “Tell a Friend” initiative.

The service is backed by IGN and the new program is the first one designed to create loyalty among customers, with more initiatives set to be unveiled as 2011 progresses.

Under the “Tell a Friend” program all referred friends will get a discount of one fifth for the first game that they get from Direct2Drive.

The rewards go up when the referred customer spends more than 49.95 dollars on the service, with a choice offered to the referrer between: a 10 dollars donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, a 10 dollars amount delivered to their PayPal account or a 20 percent deduction for a future purchase.

When the value of the purchase is between 29.95 and 49.94 dollars, the possibilities include: 20% reduction for a future order, 5 dollars for their PayPal account or a 5 dollar donation to Make-A-Wish.

The new “Tell a Friend” concept comes after Direct2Drive also announced that players could pay 5 dollars in order to play a game as a rental for a limited number of hours, allowing them to experience what it has to offer before paying the full price for it on the digital distribution service.

The offers are pretty good for gamers that can influence the purchasing decisions of their friends and could lead to more PC gamers abandoning physical purchases in order to get their games on Direct2Drive.

The digital distribution service competes with Steam from Valve, Impulse from Stardock and Gamersgate.

With Direct2Drive delivering “Tell a Friend” other services could scramble to deliver their own loyalty programs, with Gamersgate already employing an internal Blue Coin system to reward faithful customers.