BlueStacks has teamed up with a group of Android game developers who will contribute lots of titles to its GamePop mobile console, which will be available this winter for a subscription of $6.99 a month.
The supporting developers include TinyCo, Animoca, Game Circus, Creative Mobile, and Nevosoft. Games from those companies will add up to more than $200 worth of games for the initial GamePop offering. TinyCo will contribute popular franchises from its iOS and Android games while Animoca will offer more than 50 apps and games. Creative Mobile will add its Drag Racing franchise (pictured at top). Drag Racing has already had more than 130 million downloads. Between the five developers, the collection of games has been downloaded by more than 341 million people on Google Play.
“We’re excited to bring several of TinyCo’s flagship titles to the GamePop console,” said TinyCo chief executive officer Suli Ali. “Our games look great on HD TVs, and GamePop’s custom controller provides an easy-to-use alternative to the normal touch screen.” This is the first foray into TV for the San Francisco-based developer, which plans to bring hits like Tiny Village and Tiny Monsters to the platform.
Animoca’s hits include Pretty Pet Salon, Star Girl, Thor: Lord of Storms, and many others.
“We’re always interested in expanding our IP to new devices and platforms,” said David Kim, the CEO of Animoca. “With its ability to offer our mobile catalog to TV audiences, we find GamePop to be one of the most exciting developments in the world of game consoles.”
GamePop will offer a free mobile game console with a subscription commitment of $6.99 a month. That fee will give players access to 500 top mobile games.
“GamePop is innovating the mobile gaming business model on TV in a smart way,” said Vladimir Funtikov, the CEO of Creative Mobile. “We live in an all-you-can eat, free-to-play world. That goes for mobile games, Netflix, Spotify and increasingly more types of media. It feels like BlueStacks gets that, and that’s why we went with them.”
BlueStacks was founded in 2009, and it has raised $15 million from Intel, Andreessen-Horowitz, Radar Partners, Redpoint, Ignition Partners, and Qualcomm. The company’s App Player software has over 10 million users.
“The mobile game console that the most top developers choose is going to be the one most likely to win the space,” said Rosen Sharma, the CEO of BlueStacks. “We didn’t know what the reaction would be to our subscription model, but we’ve been really pleased. We’re signing developers as fast as we can meet with them. It’s a humbling feeling to have all these guys counting on us.”