Retail giant GameStop testing a game streaming service

GameStop is the world’s biggest game retailer, with more than 6,000 physical stores around the world. But the company is preparing for the age of digital distribution by testing its own online game streaming service.

After all, the company doesn’t want to be “Netflixed” the way that Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video were in movie rentals. To prevent being disrupted by online game distributors, it’s disrupting itself with its own streaming service, scheduled for a full rollout in 2012.

GameStop acquired streaming firm Spawn Labs earlier this year in an effort to jumpstart a cloud gaming business to compete with rivals such as OnLive, Valve’s Steam, and the recently announced Electronic Arts’ Origin game distribution technology.

GameStop President Tony Bartel told GameIndustry.biz that GameStop will be able to stream content to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles in addition to the PC, and possibly smart TVs as well. The closed beta will be opened to a national beta sometime before the end of the year. The members of GameStop’s loyalty program, PowerUp Rewards, will get access to the Spawn client.

The Spawn system won’t require game publishers to modify their games.

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Tags: game streaming

Companies: GameStop, OnLive, Spawn Labs

People: Tony Bartel

View the original article here

Retail giant GameStop testing a game streaming service

GameStop is the world’s biggest game retailer, with more than 6,000 physical stores around the world. But the company is preparing for the age of digital distribution by testing its own online game streaming service.

After all, the company doesn’t want to be “Netflixed” the way that Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video were in movie rentals. To prevent being disrupted by online game distributors, it’s disrupting itself with its own streaming service, scheduled for a full rollout in 2012.

GameStop acquired streaming firm Spawn Labs earlier this year in an effort to jumpstart a cloud gaming business to compete with rivals such as OnLive, Valve’s Steam, and the recently announced Electronic Arts’ Origin game distribution technology.

GameStop President Tony Bartel told GameIndustry.biz that GameStop will be able to stream content to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles in addition to the PC, and possibly smart TVs as well. The closed beta will be opened to a national beta sometime before the end of the year. The members of GameStop’s loyalty program, PowerUp Rewards, will get access to the Spawn client.

The Spawn system won’t require game publishers to modify their games.

Next Story: Electric car maker Fisker Automotive raising $200M at $2.2B?valuation
Previous Story: Tudou IPO exposes yet another China risk factor: the founder’s?wife

Tags: game streaming

Companies: GameStop, OnLive, Spawn Labs

People: Tony Bartel

View the original article here

Apple planned for five new stores of retail Saturday

A few weeks, we have noted that Apple has apparently been open more than 30 new stores of retail in the two months, pushing the total of the company to more than 360 at the end of September. While Apple has opened a couple of stores since then, including a new store in Glendale, California, just 500 feet of a location exist, things now seem to be getting into full swing with Apple apparently set to open at least five new stores this Saturday.

The total includes two U.S. stores and three international sites covering, oriented towards the Australia, the Canada and the Italy and represents the largest batch of openings since Apple opened seven stores on 25 September last year.

Apple I Gigli in Florence, Italy retail store (Source: iPhone Italia)
- Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall (Anchorage, Alaska): the new store will be first held Apple in Alaska.

- Place of fashion (Murray, Utah): second store Apple in Utah, the new store covers the portion of southern suburbs on the outskirts of Salt Lake City to complete the store existing business to the level of the gateway in downtown Salt Lake City.

- Southland (Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia): the new store is third location of Apple in the area of Melbourne and the twelfth overall for the Australia.

- Conestoga: Waterloo, Ontario (Canada): 20th retail store of Apple to the Canada, the new location is also remarkable for its placement in the hometown of smartphone rival Research in Motion.

- I Gigli: (Florence, Italy): the new store is sixth Apple Italy and first in the region of Florence, filling a gap between the store in Rome and a series of stores in the North of the Italy the Turin and Milan Bergamo.

The openings of new entrants as Apple continues to move forward with the construction on a number of other stores, and the renovation and expansion of some of its existing stores. The company also including began an upgrade of the plaza and glass cube at his Fifth Avenue in Manhattan flagship store. Earlier today we reported that Apple has released details on the reorganization of the cube, which will see the original design of 90 panes of glass, replaced by a new version with only 15 panels of glass.

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