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GameStop has been intent on expanding into different areas of the business for some time now, from having purchased flash game site Kongregate last year to offering downloadable content in stores. The company's surprising series of moves today sets it up to be a much more direct competitor to services like Steam and OnLive.
Two separate acquisitions were announced today, with the first being of Spawn Labs, a company that focuses on streaming technology. It brings "patented technology" and will work with GameStop's research & development group to "develop GameStop's growing suite of digital game products and services."
The other move was to acquire Impulse, Inc. from Stardock. Impulse is a digital distribution platform (primarily for games) first launched in 2008 that has expanded to include features like matchmaking, friends lists, chatting, Achievements, and more. It's a direct competitor to Valve's Steam; with GameStop's influence behind it, it could prove to be a much bigger player in the digital distribution space. It will continue to run as usual, with GameStop.com integration expected in "the next few months."
"Our customers are gaming in many locations and on many devices, and we need to deliver the same great immersive experience that they have come to expect," said GameStop President Tony Bartel. "Spawn Labs and Impulse provide a customer-friendly and publisher-friendly way for us to accomplish this."
"With these important acquisitions, we will continue to make appropriate investments related to our multichannel strategy," added CEO J. Paul Raines. "GameStop is uniquely positioned to be the leader in both the physical and digital gaming space."
The Impulse acquisition includes not just the client that allows gamers to purchase and download games, but also Impulse Reactor (which developers can implement in their games to include DRM and support for things like Achievements and cloud storage on Impulse) and Impulse Publisher (a tool for developers to monitor and manage sales of their games).
GameStop does currently sell digital games on its website, although compared with other digital game distributors, it's an option that can be described as lackluster. Now, with an established platform to take advantage of, there's the opportunity for Steam to receive some serious competition. And while OnLive and Gaikai have already shown that they can stream games to gamers over the 'net (depending on your Internet connection, of course), Spawn Labs is an unknown.
Assuming it pans out and is capable of delivering a service on par with the competition, GameStop could potentially offer customers something very unique: Games sold on disc in its stores that can also be downloaded from Impulse or played instantly through a streaming service, all for one price (perhaps with a premium of, say, $10 over the $50 or $60 you'd normally pay).
A conference call is scheduled for Monday, at which point we should learn much more about GameStop's plans for both companies.
GameStop Takes Aim at Steam and Streaming Games
