The US Sci Fi cable channel and Trion World Network, a Silicon Valley video game start-up, have announced an entertainment franchise that takes audience participation to a new level.
By Chris Nuttall June 03, 2008
The US Sci Fi cable channel and Trion World Network, a Silicon Valley video game start-up, have announced an entertainment franchise that takes audience participation to a new level.
TV viewers of the planned show will be able to become video gamers after the broadcast to participate in and influence a developing storyline, even inventing characters, according to the companies.
Trion, whose media backers include Time Warner, NBC Universal and Bertelsmann, is setting up an online platform for video games, with users able to choose different “channels” of games. With access through a set-top box, PC, console or mobile phone, Trion is promising live gaming delivered in a quality not seen before over the internet.
Lars Buttler, Trion chief executive, said in a Financial Times interview: “What gets our media partners and all the TV companies incredibly excited is that you can have prime-time events in a game.
“Imagine tomorrow night at 8pm you have an alien invasion – we all have to come together at that time to fight it or we lose – there’s no way to time-shift that. We are bringing appointment entertainment into a medium that has been on-demand.”
Online gaming with multiple players has become increasingly popular with the success of PC games such as World of Warcraft and Microsoft’s Xbox Live service.
Trion is not giving dates for the launch of any of its services, its technology is unproven and its intention to serve games over all available platforms is ambitious.
However, the Redwood City company has raised tens of millions of dollars in funding and hired some of the best brains in the video game industry.
Sci Fi and Trion did not announce the name of the new franchise but said creative teams from both companies would work together on “developing a dynamically evolving, massively social, connected entertainment franchise across multiple formats and platforms of choice.”
Trion also signalled on Monday it would launch boxed video game products, announcing it had acquired the rights to publish games for Sony’s PlayStation 3 console.
In addition, it announced the first game under development – a multiplayer online title from the creator of the Might and Magic and Heroes video game franchises.