Yep, GameStop's Making Its Own Gaming Tablet

.....what?...

please, please, please let this be the stupid decision that causes gamestop to go out of business.

so yes gamestop release this thing next year, heck make 5,000,000 of them bet the farm on this "awesome" idea.

@Warchief:

Yes please I hope Gamestop gets fucking shut down and all their stores be replaced by the much better, friendly, Play N Trade.

Kudos @Patrick, that sub-headline cracked me up thoroughly.

This idea is, frankly, insane. Given Nintendo's problems with selling the 3DS (and I'm having problems figuring out how the Vita is going to be successful), handheld gaming on devices that lack the easy capability of smartphones is becoming a serious gamble. I can't imagine how GameStop is going to get people to buy a TABLET that's somehow dedicated to gaming, even if it can do all of the other things Android does. What percentage of today's public is buying iPads PRIMARILY for gaming? If that number is above 2%, I'd be shocked.

Apple is cleaning up in the tablet market because they're making the hardware, which allows them to produce a high-quality product at a cost lower than their competitors. Amazon's upcoming tablet might be a serious competitor, if only for the same reason - they're making their own hardware, IIRC. Lord knows, with GameStop's horrible customer service and questionable business practices, I'll be damned if I ever buy something that tied me to their company in any way.

Oh, and @Law313, you shouldn't buy a tablet if you want it to do everything a laptop can do. That's what LAPTOPS are for! The day I got my iPad was the day I decided to give my netbook to my neighbor. It's the perfect device for web surfing, answering email, reading books, watching YouTube videos and playing an occasional game. I don't have to wait 2 minutes for it to boot up. I don't need to download Windows Updates, virus updates and other BS when I just want to search for something on Google. If I have serious work to do that an iPad can't handle, I use one of my laptops. If I just want to play Words With Friends or write an email, I use the iPad. In fact, one of the best uses for it is to look up game info (FAQ's or YouTube gameplay videos) If I'm playing something on my 360 or PS3 that I'm having a problem with. I don't want to have my laptop sitting on my lap to do those kinds of things - it's a pain and total overkill.

I'm a PC person, but I've never had anyone use my iPad for longer than 5 minutes who didn't love it and wanted to buy one for themselves. Apple isn't selling millions of iPads because they're useless. Buy the base $499 model, try it for a week and if you don't find that it's a terrific, convenient device, take it back. I think that if you go into it with an open mind, you'll find you really like it and wonder why someone didn't come up with the idea sooner.

Is this really necessary?

The tablet market is already getting too crowded, did not expect that honestly. Seriously, this probably isn't even going to be a "cheap" model. Why would someone buy this instead of an apple or a mainstream android, AND there are cheaper alternatives.

EDIT: also way to go corporate assholes, with your "we don't have enough shelf space for rhythm peripherals" whiny bullshit. Apparently you have enough space for this atrocity.

Next: GameStop launches its own smartphone, followed by a GameStop-branded television. A year later, GameStop files for bankruptcy. Everyone wins.

@BadNews: But this doesn't seem like innovation at all! If the innovation is tactical buttons added onto a tablet then it's an oddly shaped notebook or just a more tablet esque 3ds and PlayStation Vita as both of those have touch screens and tactical buttons and motion control! In fact the best comparison I can think of is the Wii U controller if it was the whole console. There are so many things coming out that have similar inputs that I fail to see this as innovation.

This isn't innovation this is the PlayStation move!

I want to see Amazon's tablet I have no interest in seeing or hearing about this thing ever again

Interesting to see all this infrastructure and market expansion Gamestop has planned using it's used game sales profits, which of course were extracted via the sweat and tears of developers.

Cool, i'm always open to new ideas and i hope this works out. I just hope that there's a decent tablet under all those games.

Seems interesting, the tablet industry needs some competition and GameStop, if what they say about it is true, sounds like a worthy contender.

I bet it will want an e-mail address upon first boot so it can flood that inbox with Gamestop advertisements.

It's going to bomba. I can't wait until Gamestop goes out of business.

o cool. i'm not going to be getting it but cool. i wounder how its going to work. 
 
i wounder how onlive is going to see it.

alright, well good for them.  a bricks-and-mortal retailer trying to make that jump over to the new age and way of doing the game business.  I'd rather see them try something like this than dragging down game retail into a pit of doom.  Android is probably the way to go too.  Big question tho - what is that controller going to look like and will it be separate or integrated into the tablet?

Oh god. Why is this allowed to exist?

Somehow I am thankful that, like everything Gamestop does, this will probably only be in the US.

I will buy one of these off eBay.

Then I'll bring it into a Gamestop and tell everyone how great it is to buy their tablet used.

Okay, so think about this for a second though. What if, when you buy a copy of a game from Gamestop, they give you a digital code to play that game on the tablet? That would be pretty cool. I'd could get into playing some Skyrim on-the-go. Would also explain the whole hullabaloo over pulling the Deus Ex Onlive coupons (which basically were doing the same thing).

Kind of like how you get a digital copy of a DVD now when you purchase the physical copy.

This has the potential to be cool, if this is one of the benefits. I mean, didn't they just buy a company that's sole purpose was streaming console games? What other purpose would that be for?

It all depends on the details, but I wouldn't write this off as just another tablet flop. A handheld console streaming device would be pretty sick in my opinion. Especially if it was set up for online gaming.

Ill stick with my IPad

What

I WANT TO PREORDER IT

CAN I HAZ WARRANTY

This is going to go down like a lead balloon!

Well, they do need to invest their money before retail goes the way of the dodo.

omg , nintendo get your gun ready---- the nintendo gameboy 3d , seriously make one of those, na the 3ds can wipe this thing out alone but i wouldnt mind nintendo going for the 2 punch strategy !!!!

omg seriously take out gamestop , they need to be stopped , before they even get started, if they enter the console market id be royally mad, cause that means theyll no longer carry other games then its own nintendo should take drastic action using wii u , or come out with gameboy tablet, that would put an end to vita and this pos lol

This is going to go down like a lead balloon!

@mariokart64fan said:

omg , nintendo get your gun ready---- the nintendo gameboy 3d , seriously make one of those, na the 3ds can wipe this thing out alone but i wouldnt mind nintendo going for the 2 punch strategy !!!!

omg seriously take out gamestop , they need to be stopped , before they even get started, if they enter the console market id be royally mad, cause that means theyll no longer carry other games then its own nintendo should take drastic action using wii u , or come out with gameboy tablet, that would put an end to vita and this pos lol

Settle down. It's a tablet. I doubt they would stop selling other games seeing as how they are a huge retailer and still making money off of it. Besides there are plenty of other ways to purchase games.

@darkjester74 said:

I wonder what the trade in value will be?

You'll get back at least seventy-five percent of the cost on the first day, and after that you'll get a maximum of ten percent.

@WJist said:

Unless they offer a library as deep as Steam's (or allowing Steam to work on the tablet, doubtful), this is going to be a big No Thank You. Maybe I don't know enough about PC gaming, but aren't there other hardware limitations, even if they do use OnLive-like tech to stream games that demand better horsepower?

They had a tech demo that was exclusive to onlive, but all the other normal games looks worse than their console counterparts because of the heavy compression used in the 720p video stream.

This news is already odd enough, but a tablet with a self-designed gaming controller? Huh?

Hated it as soon as I saw "Gamestop."

Why would anyone buy a GameStop branded gaming tablet? All tablets have games available for them. They would far of better just selling a controller for general gaming on Android and try to create a standard.

I hope they don't print Gamestop on it, as most people assosiate the brand with poor quality.

No.

And, if I may elaborate on that point: Nope.

Do you remember that one time when Blockbuster tried to out Netflix Netflix? Yeah, this is probably going to end a lot like that...

How do they sell you a digital used game?

I look forward to buying these from clearance sales on Woot.

Everyone is making an Android-based tablet these days.

@foggel said:

I hope they don't print Gamestop on it, as most people assosiate the brand with poor quality.

There knock off console peripherals are absolute garbage! (controllers, memory cards etc) I can't see this being of any better quality. The controllers always had those cheap hard plastic buttons that "clicked/clunked" when you pressed them, and the case of the controller always felt like it was going to come apart in your hand as you played.