GameStop is pulling out all the stops to hype its newest offering – a freshly unveiled and released video game-optimized Android tablet.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the company plans to begin selling the tablets in time for the holiday shopping season at 200 of its U.S. stores.
GameStop’s pilot program will include specialized tablets made by Asustek Computer Inc., Acer Inc. and Samsung Electronics Inc.
Each tablet will come with a set of seven free games, including Electronic Arts Inc.’s “Dead Space” sci-fi shooter and “Madden NFL” football game, and include links to GameStop’s mobile application store, called “Kongregate Arcade,” and the Android app marketplace.
“Customers have been telling us that they like to game on multiple devices,” says J. Paul Raines, GameStop’s chief executive. “We believe there is a gaming opportunity on tablets.”
The WSJ report calls GameStop’s tablet initiative the latest effort on behalf of the game retailer to “expand its business beyond typical boxed game sales. If successful, GameStop said it should begin expanding the program next year.”