GameClub VP hopeful about renaissance of premium mobile game development

GameClub, a subscription platform for the classic iOS titles, arrived on iOS in the US. For the familiar $4.99 per month, the subscribers can access the curated library of 50 iOS hits that had been previously rendered unplayable after Apple dropped support for 32-bit devices.

The startup has raised $4.6 million to modernize over 100 titles at launch, with new games rolling out every week.  So far, the available games have generated over 100 million collective downloads.

GameClub’s VP of business development Eli Hodapp talked to PocketGamer.biz about the service.

Model and audience

In Hodapp’s words, GameClub does not compete with Apple Arcade despite having the same business model. Instead, the project aims to challenge the free-to-play model that has dominated mobile recently.

“We’re part of a wave that has the potential to spark a renaissance of premium mobile game development.”

Eli Hodapp, VP of business development at GameClub

The company intends to achieve this by offering a variety of top quality titles that are curated with underage players in mind.

But does the team even have to worry about kids? Legacy titles are likely to appeal to nostalgic players mostly. That might very well be the case, but to contrary to the company’s expectations, the platform has engaged a lot of younger gamers. Hodapp explains, that once optimized for modern devices, even the games that are a decade old play and look fantastic.

Hodapp does not indicate just how the big a library the company is aiming for ideally. He thinks it could be as many as practically possible as long as the highly curated experience is there. Otherwise, the company will listen to the community that has been vocal throughout beta.

What’s next?

Some games on the GameClub library will debut on mobile for the first time.

There are many games which originally started as mobile projects which at some point in the development journey shifted to target the Nintendo Switch or Steam instead because of the greater opportunity that existed for premium content on those platforms – even though those titles were clearly built for touchscreens.

Eli Hodapp, VP of business development at GameClub

Now that GameClub offers a revenue model that can benefit the developers of those projects, the team will work towards bringing them to iOS.

Hodapp does not indicate just how big a library the company is aiming for ideally. He thinks it could be as many as practically possible as long as the highly curated experience is there. Other than that, the company will listen to the community, which has been vocal throughout beta.

At some point, Hodapp hopes to GameClub to Android.

Right now you can play the games like:

• Super Crate Box
• Hook Champ
• Mage Gauntlet
• Space Miner
• Forget-Me-Not
• MiniSquadron
• Plunderland
• Pocket RPG
• Sword of Fargoal
• Incoboto
• Tales of the Adventure Company
• Hook Worlds
• Orc: Vengeance
• Mr. Particle-Man
• Legendary Wars
• Deathbat
• The Path to Luma, Grimm
• Zombie Match
• Faif, iBlast Moki 2
• Kano
• Baby Lava Bounce
• Run Roo Run
• Gears and many others.

You can learn about GameClub here. There is a 30-day free trial.