Meet the Wikipad, the gamer’s tablet. Work hard, play hard. With an attachable game controller, and pre-orders now available, this could be the new must-have item for game aficionados this holiday season.
It emails, it takes pictures, it lets you play video games with a real controller. For $499, you can get the lightweight, 10.1-inch tablet, which is being built by a company called Wikipad and one of the leading videogame retailers, GameStop.
Wikipads will be in its stores by late October.
While the Wikipad is not the first tablet designed for gaming (don’t forget the $200 Archos), it is the first (as far as we know) to offer a dedicated console-like controller.
Plus, it supports a slate of top-notch videogame platforms. You’ll be able to stream and play games found on Android, PlayStation Mobile, Tegra Zone, Google Play and Gaikai, all calibrated to be played with the Wikipad’s attachable joystick.
Whether there’s a market for a dedicated game tablet is debatable, but it can’t be denied that the public loves tablets for, among other things, playing games. The Wikipad’s external controller, coupled with savvy product placement and promient shelf space at GameStop’s 6,500 stores could make it a winner.
