Netflix made streaming movies and television programs onto your TV popular via its subscription model, and now Bluestacks is hoping to the do same with mobile games.
BlueStacks announced Thursday a new gaming console and subscription service called GamePop. The company began taking preorders for the new console today ahead of a planned winter launch, but it isn't actually selling the hardware yet. As an incentive, users who commit to a year's subscription at $6.99 a month will get the console and controller for free.
Once the preorder period expires this month, users will have to actually pay for the hardware which will cost around $100, according to Ars Technica.
A full list of available titles isn't available yet, but BlueStacks is highlighting partnerships with companies like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride developers Halfbrick,Gun Bros. maker Glu Mobile, Trials Extreme maker Deemedya, and Talking Tom developer Outfit7, with more partner announcements to come.
"Mobile gaming has been taking off the past few years. BlueStacks' vision is to bring that same experience to bigger screens," said BlueStacks CEO, Rosen Sharma. The all-you-can-eat pricing model for GamePop lets users enjoy a much broader range of games, just as you can watch more movies with Netflix versus the pay-as-you-go model Blockbuster employed."
However, Bluestacks isn't playing alone in the mobile gaming subscritption business. OUYA is gearing up to start selling its Android-based video game console in retail stores at the end of next month after receiving a cool $15 million in Venture Capital funding Kleiner Perkins, NVIDIA and others, according to The Next Web. OUYA also received a record-breaking $8.59 million through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter earlier this year.
