Not all Android games are created equal. Whereas the buck-or-two entry fee might score you hours of fun and quality design with one game, you could just as easily end up bored, frustrated, and a buck lighter with another.
While most developers turn to demo/”lite” versions to pitch the full versions of their game, a company called Exent thinks they have a better solution: an all-you-can-eat, Netflix Watch Instantly-esque buffet of Android games. Like most real-world buffets, though, the success of this one is going to boil down to the selection, quality … and, uh, whether or not it gives you food poisoning.
To get started, Android handset owners download the GameTanium Mobile app from Exent’s site. As it’s technically an alternative to Google’s own market, it’s not currently allowed to be distributed in the official Android Market (which may pose a bit of a problem for handsets that have had their non-Market app downloads disabled at a firmware level. In other words, most AT&T Android phones.)
Once installed, GameTanium charges $4.99 a month for unlimited access to their collection of Android games, which they say is made up of just over 75 games at launch. At a cursory glance, the selection seems to be made up heavily of casual options like Treasures of Montezuma and Farm Frenzy, though we’re seeing at least two racing games (Wave Blazer and Raging Thunder) and one fairly popular action game (Parachute Panic) thrown into the mix for good measure. New games should be added each week, says the company, with the selection topping 200 by the end of the year.
Exent’s launch is going straight to the consumer today, but their end goal seems to be getting carriers to add this service to their handsets out-of-the-box. These are the same people who power Verizon’s fairly obscure Verizon Games service, so connecting with the carriers probably won’t be too much of a battle.