GameStick Kickstarter adds new indie dev-targeted tier, trades $250 for six months of 100% revenue (update)
The PlayJam folks are taking another cue from the Android-powered Ouya with their own GameStick, today adding a dev-focused $250 tier to the already successful Kickstarter campaign. The twist with GameStick's dev tier is its aimed at indies, and it offers a six month window of 100 percent revenue on any games released before July 2013 (in addition to a GameStick bundle, of course). The dev version costs quite a bit more than the usual $79 asking price, but guaranteeing full revenue near launch may be a worthy tradeoff for developers looking to cash-in on early adopters (the industry standard is a 70 / 30 split, with game devs taking the larger share). Sadly, you won't get the unit any earlier than the general public; PlayJam's putting an April window on launch. The deal's only available to 250 developers -- or at least the first 250 people to buy in -- so interested parties may want to act quickly.
Update: Kickstarter tell us that today's new tier falls outside of its guidelines, specifically, "Prohibited content: 'Financial incentives (ownership, share of profits, repayment/loans, etc)'" As a result, the PlayJam team was asked to remove the tier, but the page remains unaltered. We've reached out to PlayJam for comment.
Update 2: The folks at GameStick have chimed in with their side of the story, which we've included after the break.
Since launch, GameStick have received hundreds of requests from developers for access to our SDK. The team thought therefore that this pledge would be a valuable demonstration to the Indie community of our commitment to helping them reach the big screen. The pull notice from Kickstarter came as a surprise and we are currently working with the team there to clarify the reasons behind it. Initially we were told that this was to do with Amazon's Acceptable Use Policy but later learnt that this was more to do with the offer falling too close to the lines of traditional business to business transactions and is therefore fundamentally outside of Kickstarter's focus, regardless of Amazon's rules on such things. Either way, we remain 100% committed to ensuring that our campaign pleases all parties and Kickstarter have been very helpful in helping us unwind the pledge and restoring the valuable links to the campaign in various highlighted areas within the Kickstarter platform. It's been a roller-coaster ride for us all but we hope to end on a high, if we can stay out of trouble long enough.
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GAMESTICK KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES A NEW INDIE DEVELOPER
PLEDGE TIER AS IT RACES TOWARDS THE 500% FUNDING MARK
London & San Francisco; January 23rd, 2013; The team behind GameStick today announced a new
pledge tier specifically to support the Indie developer community in making the leap to the big
screen as it's Kickstarter campaign rapidly approaches the 500% mark with over a week still to go.
The new tier, which sits at just $249 has been limited to just 250 backers, and gives indie developers
aone-time offer to gain an unprecedented 100% revenue share for their game for a fullsix months as
well as a GameStick bundle at launch in April.
"In the few short weeks following the campaign launch, we have had hundreds of developers sign
up for access to our SDK, from established games studios to smaller Indie developers", says Baroova,
Head of Games at GameStick, "what better way to repay this incredible support and to accelerate
the big screen gaming revolution than with an offer that directly rewards those who were first to
support us?"
The team behind GameStick have made a number of popular announcements this week in response
to direct requests from the Kickstarter community such as the inclusion of an SDMicro memory
expansion slot on the device itself and a dock providing support for peripheral hardware such as
keyboard, mice, microphones and cameras.
Baroovahas been coordinating with many top named studios as well as indies developers happy to
publically support GameStick in its quest to bring affordable gaming to the big screen:
Roman Tisserand, CTO and Co-Founder of DotEmusaid, "We are very excited to bring our portfolio
on games (including Another World, R-TYPE and Raiden Legacy) to GameStick"
Says Jason Kingsley OBE, Founder of Rebellion and owner of AD2000, "The video games industry
has benefitted time and time again from ideas that disrupt the status quo. A new wave of devices
such as GameStick - built on truly open platforms that bring affordable gaming to the big screen
could prove the start of an interesting revolution – one which I thoroughly support and watch with
interest."
Hendrik Lesser, Board Member of the German Association of Game Developers added, " I think
the opportunity for micro consoles such as GameStick has never been bigger than now.They are
perfectly suited to disrupt the console space."
Says Paulina Bozek, creator of SingStar and founder of Inensu added; "GameStick's ability to
support peripheral hardware such as microphones and dance mats is a great opportunity for indie
developers looking to create a truly social experience around the big-screen".
Concluded Chris Bergstresser, EVP Miniclip, "What GameStick offers is a direct and easy route to the
big screen. We look forward to working with them to bring some of our classic titles to TV"
The team have also released details of the core feature set behind theSDK that powers Gamestick
on the Kickstarter update page for all developers supporting the project or visiting the page to see.
Details of which can be found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872297630/gamestick-
the-most-portable-tv-games-console-ever/posts
To register for the SDK visit the GameStick website: www.gamestick.tv
To visit the Kickstarter page, pledge and get access to one of the limited Indie Developer tiers,
please visit: http://kck.st/VrByGf
Tier details:
Price: $249
Delivery: April
Limit 250
INDIE LOVE - GameStick Bundle, (console + controller) at launch, free SDK and a limited, one-time
offer to gain 100% rev share, (minus transaction costs), for 6 months on a single title launched by
July 2013.
Technical Specifications:
Processor - Amlogic 8726-MXS, Dual Core Cortex A9 CPU, Dual Core Mali 400 GPU
Memory - 1GB DDR3/ 4GB NAND FLASH / 8GB Micro-SD / 32GB MicroSD Expansion Slot
WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth – LE 4.0
O/S – Android Jelly Bean
To follow GameStick news, join the conversation and give your opinion on Facebook or Twitter
please go: www.facebook.com/GameStickNews and
www.twitter.com/Game_Stick / @Game_Stick
To see new videos published throughout the campaign on YouTube please subscribe to:
www.youtube.com/GameStickVideos
About PlayJam:
PlayJam is the premier global platform for casual and social games on TV. By partnering with
all major Smart TV brands, we've created the largest and most vibrant games network of currently
free to play games for millions ofplayers around the world.
12 months ago, PlayJam embarked on Project GameStick, a dedicated TV games console running the
Android operating platform and small enough to fit in the pocket. GameStick launched on Kickstarter
to much acclaim on the 2nd of January 2013 to secure the funding required to bring it to production.
The campaign reached 100% of its funding target in just 30 hours and is set to close at over 500% of
that target.
