The Bluestacks GamePop Mini aims to bring a Netflix-esque business model to the Android gaming console market and offers $250 worth of paid games.
Bluestacks has announced its second Android gaming console, the GamePop Mini, which comes to market with an interesting “forever free” business model whereby the device itself is free providing that the user signs up for at least one year of the company’s $6.99 GamePop mobile gaming service.
This “Netflixification of gaming” business model aims to disrupt traditional consoles and provides $250 worth of games via a curated group of “500 popular mobile games” from partners such as HalfBrick (Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride), Glu (Blood Brothers) and Intellijoy. The service also includes BlueStack’s proprietary “Looking Glass” technology that enables iOS titles to be played with “little work” from the original app developer.
“We have always planned on having a free console option,” said BlueStacks chief executive Rosen Sharma. “The biggest value of the GamePop service is its content – not the box. Hardware costs have come down so fast that we’re able to undercut the rest of the market. With the free promotion we’ve been doing in June, we’re already seeing a ton of adoption. That volume then attracts more developers and therefore more and better content. It’s building momentum.”
With regard to technical specifications, BlueStacks has only revealed that the GamePop Mini will run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and feature “less rendering power” and “fewer ports” than the standard GamePop console.
The GamePop Mini is available for pre-order from BlueStack’s website with an expected release this winter. It will be interesting to see how this console fares in the increasingly crowded market for inexpensive Android-based gaming consoles.
