BlueStacks' GamePop Console Bringing iOS Games to TVs

asting said:

So they're introducing a subscription service to allow you to play games that you own already on your tv? This seems like a terrible business model. A device you buy once, sure. A $7 fee forever? What the hell?

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I agree, it sounds terrible.

This is an incomplete product that they "hope" to have ready by Winter. If you'll check out the site, you'll notice that the included controller isn't in any of the pictures. You have to look through the videos to even catch a half-glimpse of what may be the controller...

If Apple announces apps on the AppleTV on Monday as hoped for, that's going to be the final nail in the coffin for this product. Their best hope is to get bought out by Apple (or Google).

Although you say you're not using any Apple bits, I don't know if there's any restriction from Apple about usage of iOS/Cocoa apps outside the app store.

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If they don't now, they will.

As a developer, NO WAY would I risk this. No, thanks.

Besides that: phone/tablet != TV. There will be too much "lost in the translation".

asting said:

So they're introducing a subscription service to allow you to play games that you own already on your tv? This seems like a terrible business model. A device you buy once, sure. A $7 fee forever? What the hell?

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If you already own the games, it's probably less attractive. They claim they'll 500+ games available, which might not be bad value - IF they have 500+ good games, and IF the console works well.

I'm rarely interested in any digital subscription options, but if they had a decent library available at that price it would interest me. It's less than I pay for Netflix, less than I used to pay for XBL Gold, less than I pay for eMusic.

Wayfarer said:

Doesn't Apple TV already do this through Airplay?

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If I understand, stand alone device you plug into the TV does all the work and heavy lifting and runs the game directly. There's no mirroring. So the game will have to be available on the platform, but it sounds like they are promising you can easily make an iOS game available without modifications to the code.

The problem is the announcement has details for developers wrapped in details for consumers, and it is unclear what is what. I didn't get it until the BlueStacks guy responded above (and I am not 100% sure I've figured it out...but I think I'm close).

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jtara said:

If they don't now, they will.

As a developer, NO WAY would I risk this. No, thanks.

Besides that: phone/tablet != TV. There will be too much "lost in the translation".

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Really depends on how the Oracle/Google case plays out. If Google can recreate the Java API, I don't see why Blue Stacks cannot recreate the iOS API. But that case has been appealed, so we will see.

That said, I agree it's a pretty big gamble. Especially for app developers.

Wayfarer said:

Doesn't Apple TV already do this through Airplay?

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maybe with this you dont have to have an apple device?

I imagine BlueStacks will be receiving a cease and desist letter from Apple anytime now.

macgeek01 said:

I imagine BlueStacks will be receiving a cease and desist letter from Apple anytime now.

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Nah. This will just be the shortest product life in history. Well, wait. Maybe not. It will still be around longer than the Facebook phone. Anyway, they're release it and next thing you know Apple will make iOS apps available on the AppleTV. The End.

FakeWozniak said:

Interesting thought, but what if they come to market now with some hack hardware that doesn't sell, get all their games ready for the TV format, then WHEN Apple does come out with a TV, they are first to market for Apples AppleTV App Store.

I wouldn't be surprised if they already have developers working on an jailbroken AppleTV. This is a good gamble if you want to be running out of the starting gate.

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even though they are the first to market apple's app store games it wouldn't be optimise to use for TV. well, depending on the games.... like I don't enjoy playing FPS on the iphone, but very much enjoyed it on PC & Mac. I don't know how, for an example the game field runners would translate to the controllers in gamepop console, and any other games for that matter.

working on a jailbroken apple tv to create apps, yes it's a good gamble. cause apple would definitely use iOS for their tv set, albeit with adding new API for developers to access.

but use existing code to use on other platform such as the gamepop, it's not a good gamble

I hope they do a better job with the Gamepoo than they did with the bluestacks program on Windows, that's the most awful software I've ever used. It's too bad, the idea is so incredible, but I have yet to have it work on any computer I've tried it on.

This is excellent news. I always wanted to play zero-fat games on my TV

This is the basic sort of thing that Apple should be doing.

All apps should run on all devices OS agnostic. AppleTV, iOS, MacOS, Classic (PPC/68K/Intel), Windows, DOS, CPM, Unix. With rare exceptions everything should run. The computing power to do the emulation is there on even the lowliest Apple device.

Likewise we should be able to access and manipulate our data sets in our applications on any device.