New Technology Reviews!.: Spawn

GameStop details plans for Impulse and Spawn Labs, says it's 'becoming a technology company'

<img alt="" border="1" hspace="4" src="http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2413/gamestopspawnlabs040120.jpg" vspace="4"> Well, it looks like GameStop's plans following its acquisition of Impulse and Spawn Labs may be even grander than we had suspected. At an investor conference today, GameStop said flat out that it is "becoming a technology company," and that it does indeed plan to introduce a cloud-based gaming service similar to OnLive as a result of the Spawn Labs acquisition, while Impulse will be used to "compete fiercely" with Steam. But that's just the start of things. According to the Dallas Morning News, GameStop also plans to expand the gaming service to a variety of mobile devices, and it's apparently even entertaining the idea of a GameStop-branded tablet, saying that "if we feel like we could do a better job of making a tablet, we'll do that." Of course, some of that is still quite a ways off, but GameStop will be taking its first steps fairly soon -- it's already showed off a demo of how the service will be integrated into its website (see above, complete with a "try it now" option), and it plans to begin a public beta sometime this year before rolling out the full service early next year.GameStop details plans for Impulse and Spawn Labs, says it's 'becoming a technology company' <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/gamestop-details-plans-for-impulse-and-spawn-labs-says-its-be/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">via</A>

GameStop details plans for Impulse and Spawn Labs, says it's 'becoming a technology company'

Well, it looks like GameStop's plans following its acquisition of Impulse and Spawn Labs may be even grander than we had suspected. At a...

GameStop snaps up Spawn Labs, Impulse game distribution platform

<img alt="" border="0" hspace="4" src="http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/5198/gamestopimpulsespawn.jpg" vspace="4">We wouldn't count on its retail business going away anytime soon, but it looks like GameStop is now also betting heavily on a digitally-distributed future. To that end, the company has just announced that it's acquiring both Spawn Labs and Steam-competitor Impulse, the latter of which it's buying out from parent company Stardock Systems. While Spawn Labs may not be the most familiar name, you might remember its HD-720 set-top box -- essentially a Slingbox for your game consoles -- which we first checked out way back in 2009 and finally started shipping in early 2010. It sounds like GameStop may have some even grander ambitions for the technology than that, however, as the company's press release says that it's now testing a "new consumer interface" that will give users "immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device." As our pals at Joystiq note, that sounds an awful lot like OnLive-esque cloud-based gaming service, but GameStop unfortunately isn't offering many other hints at the moment. <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/gamestop-snaps-up-spawn-labs-impulse-game-distribution-platform/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">via</A>

GameStop snaps up Spawn Labs, Impulse game distribution platform

We wouldn't count on its retail business going away anytime soon, but it looks like GameStop is now also betting heavily on a digitally-...