Major games retailer GameStop has begun rolling out its
plans to sell its own specialized Android tablets, and is now selling the devices at 200 of its U.S. retail locations.
The Wall Street Journal reports that these devices are manufactured by Asustek, Acer, and Samsung Electronics, and come bundled with seven mobile titles, including EA's
Dead Space and
Madden NFL. In addition, the devices come with links to GameStop's Kongregate Arcade app store and the Android Market.
This new push into tablet sales is part of the company's larger plan to expand its business beyond traditional boxed game sales.
This initiative began last month, when GameStop began
accepting iOS devices as trade-ins for store credit. Along with this move, the company said its own branded tablet will serve as a "GameStop certified gaming platform."
In 2009, GameStop began its push beyond the traditional retail game market by
selling downloadable content in-store, and later
purchased the social gaming hub Kongregate.
In 2011, the company
acquired the Stardock-developed download service Impulse, which as since been
integrated directly into GameStop.com.
