GamePop Console Gets iOS Game Support

OUYA-rivaling console GamePop will support iOS games, BlueStacks has confirmed, using an Apple pseudo-virtualization system called Looking Glass which makes porting iPhone and iPad titles straightforward. The new functionality, which joins GamePop's already-known Andorid game support, will see iOS titles from participating developers included in BlueStacks' subscription-based all-you-can-play gaming package, priced at $9.99 per month.

GamePop will launch with around 500 Android titles, on top of which there will be an unspecified number of iOS games. The company has already struck a deal with Subatomic Studios, responsible for the Fieldrunners series, to bring its catalog of titles to the console.

Still, this isn't full App Store access. What GamePop is offering to developers is the ability to easily port over their iOS software: the only thing that needs to be changed, apparently, is the in-app payments system, which has to be hooked into either Google or Amazon's services rather than Apple's.

Once that is done, the GamePop console's Looking Glass system basically creates a virtual iOS device at the API level, translating control input from both the GamePop controller and the iOS/Android apps that will be offered.

GamePop differs from fellow Android-based console OUYA by virtue of its subscription gaming plan. Rather than charge for individual titles, as is commonly the case, players cough up a single monthly fee but can download as many of the available titles as they wish.

The only extra charge on top of that is for in-app purchases, which BlueStacks says will in at least part to developers, along with "a very healthy cut" of the subscription revenues. The console itself will be $129 – after a limited period promotion – from the end of this month.

VIA: 9to5Mac