March 4,2008 - In a market where gaming is becoming more and more of a casual affair as the age of an average gamer grows older with the once-nascent industry. Mobile gaming on cellular devices, an increasing abundance of flash games, and the Wii’s fantastic success so far are reflective of this trend. As a business, gaming is inching closer and closer to revenues rivaling Hollywood and TV series. Instead of competing, though, these two industries could be working together creating a new prospective cash cow that people will gladly exchange their hard earned dollars for. What we’re talking about here is Broadcast Gaming. That is, interaction on a gaming level with your favorite T.V. shows. Today’s consoles, with all their intricate wiring and controllers with a dozen buttons seem to deter that humongous average Joe audience. Broadcast Gaming will simplify the gaming experience with a one-time installation by a technician that will incorporate many features of current consoles while adding a few that are impossible on current systems. Hang with us for a couple minutes as we outline how awesome and immersive an experience like this could be for hardcore gamers and casual housewives alike.
The once astronomically popular show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, is a prime example of a game show that got people at home involved, and excited about "participating."
We could go as far as assuming that people watch shows like Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and The Price is Right not just because they like the personalities of Alex Trebek or Drew Carey, but because they enjoy playing at home, attempting to answer the questions better then the contestants on the show. What if, instead of being an impassive listener, you could be recognized for your superior well of useless trivia? If your TV is hooked up to The Broadcast Gaming set-top box, then you and a million other viewers could send your response to servers hosted on the game show’s end. There, your answers are mapped to a unique Gamer Tag, and you can view your ranking against all other participants on nation-wide leaderboard.
It would all be as easy as traversing a menu at the bottom of your screen like you can with TV Guide, and then selecting your choices. For shows aimed at less of an interactive audience, the “Poll the Audience” lifeline in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? could aggregate all these responses into a huge, accurate representation of the public’s knowledge on a question. The Price is Right could have users “shout” to the contestants as if they were in the studio audience. If you don’t like trivia gaming, turn the channel to play some less casual games.
Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Sony’s Playstation Network, and the Wii’s Virtual Arcade all have one thing in common: they allow users to download new games to their consoles. Expanding this concept, what if you could download a new episode of your favorite game series on a weekly basis? Included in your Broadcast Gaming set-top box is an 80 GB hard drive dedicated solely to storing your downloaded episodes. Of course, for those hardcore Broadcast gamers, you’ll be able to hook up an external HDD for extra/portable storage. Episodic gaming exists now, but has not picked up the kind of steam it needs to become widely adopted. Telltale Games’ Sam and Max sold well, as do Kuma Reality’s handful of episodic first-person shooters. On a medium like Broadcast Gaming, development costs could be paid for with subscriptions, set-top box hardware sales, and very scant advertising.
Independent developers releasing games episodically could reach an exponentially larger audience if Broadcast Gaming is adapted as rabidly as a casual gaming device like the Wii was. Larger publishers, too, would get their hands dirty to provide cheap yet endearing stories delivered on a weekly basis. And if enough people get on board, the Big Three might be convinced to let some of their own content leak into the Broadcast Gaming Network. Different series could have their downloads offered at various times during the week, with short preview trailers being offered at all times so fans can get a heads-up on what’s to come. Channels could be separated into Children, Teen, Young Adult, and Mature with games suitable to those age groups available. Unavoidably, there will be some cooperative games released, and for that reason, the BG set-top box will come with ports for up to four wireless controllers to be synched.
Admittedly, for this idea to work the Broadcast Gaming set-top would have to include a lot of hardware for a cheap price. For that reason, the hardware will take Nintendo’s approach and be a generation behind current consoles. That just leaves cost for the HDD, and extra controllers, to the user. Taking an initial small monetary loss per-unit-sold a la Xbox and Playstation until costs fall, money can be made through subscriptions and advertising. Graphics haven’t seemed to hurt the raging popularity of casual gaming on mobile devices, handhelds, and the Wii, so why should this be any different? If Broadcast Gaming could take hold as outlined, then we could be seeing a future nirvana of gaming, with immersing, accessible games delivered en masse at a price comparable to your cable bill.
http://www.gamer20.com/features/318/
The once astronomically popular show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, is a prime example of a game show that got people at home involved, and excited about "participating."
We could go as far as assuming that people watch shows like Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and The Price is Right not just because they like the personalities of Alex Trebek or Drew Carey, but because they enjoy playing at home, attempting to answer the questions better then the contestants on the show. What if, instead of being an impassive listener, you could be recognized for your superior well of useless trivia? If your TV is hooked up to The Broadcast Gaming set-top box, then you and a million other viewers could send your response to servers hosted on the game show’s end. There, your answers are mapped to a unique Gamer Tag, and you can view your ranking against all other participants on nation-wide leaderboard.
It would all be as easy as traversing a menu at the bottom of your screen like you can with TV Guide, and then selecting your choices. For shows aimed at less of an interactive audience, the “Poll the Audience” lifeline in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? could aggregate all these responses into a huge, accurate representation of the public’s knowledge on a question. The Price is Right could have users “shout” to the contestants as if they were in the studio audience. If you don’t like trivia gaming, turn the channel to play some less casual games.
Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Sony’s Playstation Network, and the Wii’s Virtual Arcade all have one thing in common: they allow users to download new games to their consoles. Expanding this concept, what if you could download a new episode of your favorite game series on a weekly basis? Included in your Broadcast Gaming set-top box is an 80 GB hard drive dedicated solely to storing your downloaded episodes. Of course, for those hardcore Broadcast gamers, you’ll be able to hook up an external HDD for extra/portable storage. Episodic gaming exists now, but has not picked up the kind of steam it needs to become widely adopted. Telltale Games’ Sam and Max sold well, as do Kuma Reality’s handful of episodic first-person shooters. On a medium like Broadcast Gaming, development costs could be paid for with subscriptions, set-top box hardware sales, and very scant advertising.
Independent developers releasing games episodically could reach an exponentially larger audience if Broadcast Gaming is adapted as rabidly as a casual gaming device like the Wii was. Larger publishers, too, would get their hands dirty to provide cheap yet endearing stories delivered on a weekly basis. And if enough people get on board, the Big Three might be convinced to let some of their own content leak into the Broadcast Gaming Network. Different series could have their downloads offered at various times during the week, with short preview trailers being offered at all times so fans can get a heads-up on what’s to come. Channels could be separated into Children, Teen, Young Adult, and Mature with games suitable to those age groups available. Unavoidably, there will be some cooperative games released, and for that reason, the BG set-top box will come with ports for up to four wireless controllers to be synched.
Admittedly, for this idea to work the Broadcast Gaming set-top would have to include a lot of hardware for a cheap price. For that reason, the hardware will take Nintendo’s approach and be a generation behind current consoles. That just leaves cost for the HDD, and extra controllers, to the user. Taking an initial small monetary loss per-unit-sold a la Xbox and Playstation until costs fall, money can be made through subscriptions and advertising. Graphics haven’t seemed to hurt the raging popularity of casual gaming on mobile devices, handhelds, and the Wii, so why should this be any different? If Broadcast Gaming could take hold as outlined, then we could be seeing a future nirvana of gaming, with immersing, accessible games delivered en masse at a price comparable to your cable bill.
http://www.gamer20.com/features/318/