• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, November 1, 2011

While hardware makers such as Nintendo and Sony may be a bit slow to recognize how smartphones and other mobile devices are eating their handheld consoles’ lunch in the market, games retailer GameStop knows where the action is. The leading specialty store for gamers is about to enter the tablet market by selling Android tablets bundled with games. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the company is initiating a pilot program involving hardware from Asustek Computer Inc., Acer and Samsung.

This is the first attempt we have heard of tablets being bundled with a range of games to attract consumers from their proven devotion to the iPad. Throughout 2011, numerous contenders from Samsung and Motorola especially have tried to erode Apple’s dominant market share and consumer preference with a range of large and small tablet models. This time out, GameStop is focusing on the games niche and trying to appeal to that segment’s lover of some signature brands. The tablets will include high-profile hits like “Dead Space” and “Madden NFL.” GameStop will also use its own game app hub, Kongregate Arcade, for distribution. Exclusive to the GameStop tablets will be a $39 controller add-on that can be used to play on the tablet with the more advanced interface and controls of a familiar game controller.

The initial push will come in only 200 of GameStop’s 6,500 stores. GameStop has been keenly aware of the ways in which mobile gaming is encroaching on the traditional video games markets. Not only does mobile gaming move the users onto platforms the retailer doesn’t support traditionally, but it uses digital distribution that cuts the retailer out of the loop entirely. By selling hardware tied to a software bundle, its own distribution mechanism and even custom controllers, the retailer is at least thinking a little harder about how to reinsert itself into a games market that has gone mobile.

Of course GameSpot is choosing a platform that remains at best unready to support robust tablet use. Even with a year of having hardware in the market, the app offerings for Android tablets remain scant.  Amazon appears to have made an impression on some consumers with its $199 price point on the upcoming Kindle Fire. Amazon, too, is trying to make up for Android’s absent apps with its own e-book and streaming video content. But it seems unlikely GameStop could match Amazon’s ability to eat that kind of loss on hardware in order to offer a bargain-basement price.