[citation][nom]amallama[/nom]I see Game Stop sees where the wind is blowing. Tablets are the "hot" products right now so it stands to reason they have to get piece of that pie. I am not sure of the whole business model though. Did they create a marketplace for themselves? They will be losing out if the only sell hardware and not getting a cut of he software like, hp, google, microsoft. Imagine all of the android tablet owners(with tegra 2) that could download a gamestop market with tie ins to the brick and mortar locations as well as online. (contests, promotion etc) I will not say that tablets are the best gaming platform with the all touch screen controls but the addition of the BT game controller is nice. The should probably sweeten the deal with HDMI cables for the compatible tablets or a least a carrying case with a built in stand. (Obviously those are upsale items and the controller add on is what make them unique atm)[/citation]
lol, no body would ever support a gamestop store, at least people providing content for it, as they burnt allot of bridged in the developer community a long time ago.
now as for tablets being a hot item right now, you make that sound like a fad, and tablets arent a fad anymore. at first they were an interesting product, but the more you use one, you really see how useful they can be. im not saying they will sustain the intrest they have right now, but they wont fade away.
now a tablet as a gameing device, i can see this happening, but not unless a few things are met.
1) lock down the os and hardware in a way apple would lose the term "jailbroken". what i mean is make the tablet a completely closed system, android is ok an all but you need to use less resources, and locking the os will help that a bit, as it doesnt need to be open. this allows for a less pirateable experience (i said less for a reason).
2) release a new tablet/device in cycles of 2-3 years and support 2-3 generations of hardware. think of this like a pc game, you can play it on ultra on the newest model, medium on the older, and low on the oldest, and anything older is unplayable. this allows for people who spend crap tons on games to see the platform as a viable optoin as it will last for 6-9 years before being necessary to get new
3) you need online infrastructure. think of this like steam, where if you go to a new computer, you still have all the games from the old one.
4) you need either on device controls, or a standard controller, as no real gamer likes useing a touch screen to move. if the game was built for touchscreens or works better on them, than fine, but no one wants to play a platformer, or a fps with on screen controls.
5) it must have a dock, with a disc based media (cartrage is ok too) because lets be honest, not every game can fit onto a 16-32gb storage space. the dock could have a hdd, or ssd, or possibly user upgradeable, and it would feed the game data to the device to process.
im probably forgetting a few things, but thats how i see tablts being a viable option for gameing