I’ve been following the curiosity that is the GamePop for quite a while now, and it seems like details on its release are firming up at an alarming rate. The set top box is now available for preorder in two different flavors: Agreeing to a $6.99 monthly service for the next year before June, or just buying the GamePop outright at $129.99 after that.
What sets the GamePop apart from other set top box game machines like the Ouya is that it uses proprietary “LookingGlass Technology" which, if the dream is to be believed, allows developers to port their iOS and Android games to the device with “next to no tweaks" to get them running. The idea being, with the porting process being near zero-effort, the GamePop should have a massive library of games. There’s even “around 500" ready to go for launch.
As we’ve discussed quite a bit on our podcast, I’m really just not sure what kind of market there is for stuff like this. Gizmos like the GamePop to me feel a lot like the various “50 Games in 1" game consoles that seem to pop up in random mall kiosks that both mysteriously appear and then vanish like a fortune teller’s tent in Are You Afraid of the Dark around the holiday season. To be fair, GamePop is actually loaded with the real games instead of hilarious half-broken knock-offs like Superb Murio Brothers and Duck Scrunt… But, I just don’t know.
The vast majority of the “big" name games they are touting as launch titles weren’t designed with any kind of TV play in mind, so, while there are “around 500" games, how many of them will be great experiences? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
