GAMING BLEND

By now, you might have heard that the GameStick micro console cleared its Kickstarter goal by a sound margin and will be heading to market sometime in the coming months. While it's too late to get in on the first wave of consoles, however, the folks at PlayJam are now offering a pre-order option to make sure you get your very own GameStick before it begins its wide release.

We reported earlier this month that the GameStick had cleared its Kickstarter goal by more than 600 percent, allowing the upcoming console to sport several new features, as well as various standard colors. Those who participated in the Kickstarter campaign at a certain level will be getting their hands on a GameStick before anyone else, shipping sometime this April. If you happened to miss out on your opportunity to snag a first run of the consoles, however, the developers at PlayJam have now launched a pre-order option on their official website and, by clicking that giant pink button, you can still get your console nice and early.

The GameStick is an interesting offering in the sudden wave of Android-based games consoles we're seeing pop up these days. The console itself is a small thumb drive that pops out of the body of the controller and plugs directly into your television's HDMI slot. Once it's powered on, you can download from a library of games and get to playing. While the console only comes with about eight gigs of internal memory, one of the stretch goals for GameStick was reached and now allows you to plug in a micro SD card of up to 32 GB. Given the size of most of these Android games, that should give you more than enough room to game for some time to come.

January was a pivotal month for GameStick with the success of the campaign ensuring that we could bring the device to life, said CMO PlayJam Anthony Johnson. Since the campaign closed, we have received thousands of emails from individuals keen to ensure they remain one of the first to receive the product. By continuing to offer GameStick on pre-order, we will be able to maintain momentum ahead of our planned retail activity.

A GameStick pre-order will set you back $79, which includes the controller and the console. A case and a docking station that will support a wide range of peripheral devices can also be reserved for $9.99 and $24.99 respectively. After the Kickstarter shipments have wrapped up in April, the pre-order run will then hit the mailbox. After that, GameStick should be arriving in retail in the coming months.

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