MAY 9, 2013 • There’s a new player in the rush to bring Android games to the living room, GamePop. The new console and service comes from GameStacks, the company that markets an app to run Android content on Macs and PCs. Scheduled for a release later this year, GamePop is expected to launch with 500 games, but GameStacks has yet to disclose what games those will be. Partnerships with prominent mobile developers such as Halfbrick, Glu Mobile, Deemedya, and Outfit7 are being touted. Specifications for the console have not been released, although the device is reported to use Android 4.2. Neither has the GamePop console and controller been priced, although it is estimated to be a $100 value. Users will also have the option of using their smartphone as a controller. People who pre-order the subscription service before the end of May will get the hardware for free. GameStacks is charging $6.99 per month for the service, and 12 months must be purchased up front. The company intends to share 50% of the subscription revenue with developers. One quirk is that GameStacks will not be controlling any in-app purchases. Those will still have to flow through the GooglePlay. Developers will not have the responsibility of adapting their titles to run on GamePop, GameStacks will port the games internally. GamePop will follow Ouya into the market. That Android console has a new launch date of June 25. The small delay from the original June 4 date will allow for more units to be produced and shipped, and was made possible by another round of venture funding that secured $15 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mayfield Fund, NVIDIA, Shasta Ventures, and Occam Partners.

Impact: We realize that Japan’s telecommunications giant KDDI has done very well with its au Smart Pass that provides an all-you-can-eat buffet of top Android titles for ¥390 ($3.88) a month. The service passed 5 million total subscribers last March. While GamePop seems to directly emulate this successful model, there is a big difference. In Japan, au Smart Pass is packaging content to people to use on smartphones or tablets they already own and use constantly. We are still not convinced that there is a legion of consumers chomping at the bit to play Android games on their HDTVs – adapted for big screens or not. This is especially true when something like a Samsung Galaxy SIII packs more processing power than a Ouya from the specs we’ve seen. 

Arriving June 25th.

We see challenges ahead with two major services in Ouya and GamePop competing for the same market.  There also is the trend that Android phone owners have been less inclined to pay for individual games than those who use iOS devices. This is a big reason, in our estimation, why a service like au Smart Pass has been successful. But with GamePop, consumers won’t be investing in the enjoyment of their Android smartphones, they are being asked to accept a whole new device into their lives. In this scenario, granting that Android games have a general perception that they are free to play, we are concerned that consumers will think twice before paying extra for a new device to play what they perceive as free content. We don’t see a very large pie here to carve up, more like a potential user base in the tens of thousands versus millions.