GameStop porting game-streaming Spawn Player to Android

[Terminator02]

GameStop is wasting little time expanding the scope of Spawn Labs, its newly minted "cloud gaming division." A recent job listing for the company seeks a senior software engineer to be "responsible for the development and maintenance of our Player software on Android tablets and smartphones." (Additional job postings are for key roles in the division, which is also looking to port the Spawn Player app to Linux-based systems.)

Upon announcing the acquisition of the game-streaming tech outfit late last month, GameStop laid out a clear goal: "Once the Spawn Labs integration and testing on a new consumer interface is complete, users will have immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any internet-enabled device." Android phones and tablets (and Linux systems) would appear to be next on the checklist, but what about iOS devices?

"Getting the audio and video onto the iPhone or iPad is not too hard," Spawn Labs' David Wilson pointed out in the community forums (some months ago). "Getting game control in a way that works for console games is hard -- but only because Apple controls both the physical and Bluetooth interfaces to the device." In response to a followup question, he added, "Yes, Android is more within our control than the iPhone."

While Spawn Labs has operated as a sort of "Slingbox for gaming," with its Spawn HD-720 box providing the technology to stream your game consoles' content to a computer, GameStop appears to be angling to cast a much wider net -- not just to stream your console games on more devices, but to sell you new games to stream on more devices. The retail giant has also scooped up a digital distribution platform in Impulse, which would seem just the thing to provide that "wide selection of high-definition video games on demand" -- just as soon as Spawns Labs' "new consumer interface is complete," of course. (Muahahahahaha!)[/p]

Source (Joystiq)

 

[KingVamp]

Shouldn't something like this go to the NGP or 3DS?

 

[Terminator02]

nintendo/sony wouldn't allow it

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

I haven't been keeping up with whatever it is GameStop's doing, but I assume this is a service similar to OnLive?

 

[Foxi4]

I like it how you say it's being ported to Android and Linux while Android *is* a flavour of Linux itself.

 

[notmeanymore]

Hoh fuck yes.

With this in mind, the Xperia Play is really tempting...

 

[KingVamp]

nintendo/sony wouldn't allow it

Tbh I didn't see the reason not to, specially if they get a cut.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

I like it how you say it's being ported to Android and Linux while Android *is* a flavour of Linux itself.

Most people mean the whole GNU/Linux OS when they say just Linux. While Android may be built on top of a (heavily patched, and in such a way the patches can't go upstream) Linux kernel, it's not a flavour of that familiar environment. The Linux port should end up working fine on any *nix that uses X11, the Android port will probably only work on Android.