While there is already a plethora of way to purchase Android apps and games from various online 3rd party markets as well as the Amazon App Store and the actual Android Market, indiePub is looking to make the whole experience now accessible through retail outlets as well.
indiePub is hoping to introduce a card which can be purchased at select retail locations called the “Android All-Stars Card”. So what would be the point of doing something like this when you can just grab it off your phone instead? Gifts. Currently you can’t give anyone a game as a gift through the Android Market since it doesn’t support coupon codes or gift card and while you could use an Amazon Gift Card as a gift to someone who can redeem it on the Amazon App Store, the selection there is no where near that of the Android Market.
indiePub has devised a plan in which people can buy these “Android All-Star” cards are certain retail outlets in the US and Canada such as Target, Toys R’ Us, Rogers Mobile, Sam’s Club and other stores. These cards would come with a code, similar to other types of game cards you can buy like Xbox points, in-game currency for MMO type games and other types of things regarding games. This code will allow the person who has the card to use said code in order to download a bundle of the top Android games.
So far we know that the first bundle, dubbed Android All-Stars Vol.1, will include Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, Sally’s Spa and several others. Volume 2 will include title such as Kona’s Crate, Guerilla Bob, Free Kicks Soccer, Backbreaker Football and others. The 3rd volume, which has my interest peaked the most, is a special Atari bundle which features over 100 classic Atari games. The first two volumes, and possible future ones as well, will each contain at least 10 games from major developers which is a pretty good deal considering each card will cost $10.
Apparently this is just the beginning for indiePub as they are apparently working on some big project which, we can assume, will consist of selling indie and major developer games, most likely in bundles but via their website. This is a guess on our part though as they haven’t released any information about what this project is. We just did a little snooping around and indeed indiePub is planning on opening some sort of marketplace for selling games both on Android and iOS, you can check out the beta (and sign-up) over on the beta site.
“The Android All-Stars program has significant benefits for the traditional brick and mortar retail business by providing a channel into the rapidly expanding digital application delivery market. The Android All-Stars cards also tap into a small fraction of the new indiePub technology that will soon be unveiled with the launch of the new indiePub site. Android publishing partners benefit by having their great games pulled from the clutter of the hundreds of thousands of apps in the Android Marketplace to then be placed in front of significant consumer retail traffic.” – indiePub CEO Mark Seremet.
These “Android All-Star” cards will be available this holiday season. It will be interesting to see how this idea takes off. It isn’t a bad idea, especially when it comes to giving a gift to someone who just got a new Android phone or Tablet. So what do you guys think? Good idea or will this flop?
Developer Website: indiePub
Website Referenced: Gamepro
