games

Playcast Media--a start-up with offices in Israel and London that offers a games-on-demand system which it says allows consumers to play modern, high-end video games on their existing cable or IPTV set-top box, using a game pad or controller, without lags or latency (note: the company was founded by two Harmonic veterans--Guy de Beer, who previously managed that company's VOD product lines, and Natan Peterfreund, who was previously its principal scientist and who is one of the originators of the H.264 compression standard; it recently launched an HD version of its system and revealed that it had signed an MOU with an unnamed Portuguese pay-TV operator--see the articles published on itvt.com, May 16th and 26th)--said Tuesday that it has formed a partnership with games ac

A Los Angeles-based start-up called Philo (in honor of Philo T. Farnsworth, one of the inventors of television) officially launched its flagship social TV service Wednesday.

Static 2358, the company behind the pioneering interactive TV games service, PlayJam (note: Static 2358 and PlayJam were acquired by OpenTV in 2001; they were re-purchased in early 2008 by their founder, Jasper Smith), contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that it will be providing free access to some of the most popular PlayJam titles on the Sky platform, and will also be introducing new PlayJam games from puzzle publisher, Puzzle Media. According to the company, this is the first time that PlayJam has given viewers completely free access to so many of its games, since its launch on the Sky platform back in 2000: viewers are usually required to purchase a day pass to play its games.

Toronto-based multiplatform games company, TransGaming, and Rotterdam-based hybrid TV specialist, Metrological, said Wednesday that they have formed a partnership that will see them deploying TransGaming's GameTreeTV games platform to cable operators and managed service operators via Metrological's Mediaconnect TV platform. According to the companies--which say that they are currently working to integrate their respective platforms--their partnership means that Metrological's customers will be able to offer video games to their subscribers as part of a fully integrated digital entertainment solution.

OTT specialist, Roku, and pay-per-view event provider, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), announced a multi-year deal, late Sunday, that will see all major UFC events featured on Roku, starting with the May 29th UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans PPV event from the MGM Grand Garden Arena. "We are always looking at the latest technology and the newest ways to bring the UFC experience to our fans," UFC president, Dana White, said in a prepared statement.

Multiplatform casual games company, Oberon Media, on Wednesday unveiled a catalog of interactive TV games for 3D TV. According to Oberon, the stereoscopic 3D games are designed to be visually engaging and are based on the company's "commercially proven" casual games catalog, which among other offerings features the "Dream Day Wedding" franchise. The games will "help promote and highlight the capabilities of the latest advancements in 3D TV screens," the company claims.

John P. Roberts, the executive who pioneered participation TV in the US as SVP of digital media and entertainment at the Game Show Network (now GSN), has been named SVP of digital content and cross-platform entertainment at The Hub, a multiplatform children's TV network that is a joint venture between Discovery and Hasbro and that is scheduled to launch October 10th with what it promises will be a "robust and engaging online presence." He will report to The Hub's president and CEO, Margaret Loesch.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, so we are covering today's stories in round-up/summary form. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" In this edition, Sangita Verma, co-founder of TAG Networks, the interactive TV games company that earlier this week announced that it had been acquired by ActiveVideo Networks, discusses plans to open up TAG's games platform to third-party developers.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The BBC last week announced plans to offer four original "interactive episodes" of its long-running scifi series, "Doctor Who." Entitled "Doctor Who--The Adventure Games" and available free of charge on bbc.co.uk/doctorwho, the "interactive episodes" will take the form of downloadable computer games for PC and Mac that will allow players to assume control of The Doctor and his human sidekick, Amy, as they embark on new adventures that complement the latest season of the TV series, the corporation says.

NBC Universal-owned cable channel, Bravo, has unveiled yet another social media initiative around its programming (note: last month, for example--see the article published on itvt.com, March 24th--the broadcaster launched a live, social TV experience, dubbed "Talk Bubble," around its reality series, "The Real Housewives of New York City"; and earlier this year--see the article published on itvt.com, January 31st--it announced a partnership with location-based social networking service, Foursquare, to integrate its shows with the latt

UK-based set-top box company, Pace, has unveiled an HD set-top box that is designed to make games developed for the PC accessible in the living room. According to the company, the device, which was developed under the auspices of the European Union-funded Games@Large project (of which Pace is a consortium member), allows high-quality PC games to be played on the TV, using a combination of game servers and streaming technology. It is being demo'd this week in Pace's stand (89) at the IPTV World Forum in London.

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, "The iTV Doctor Is In!" This week, Sangita Verma, founder and CEO of TAG Networks, explains how that company's interactive TV games channel on Oceanic Time Warner Cable is beating major linear programming networks in terms of average daily viewing minutes. (Note: [itvt] would like to thank Rick for moderating the highly praised panel, "The iTV Doctor Is In!: The Operating Room," at the TV of Tomorrow Show last week.)

DISH Network announced Wednesday that it has launched Tetris TV, a subscription-based interactive TV games service from cross-platform casual games company, Oberon Media, which licenses the rights to the Tetris format from The Tetris Company. Oberon, which plans to roll out Tetris TV with additional partners worldwide, says that DISH Network is the first company to launch the service in North America. DISH Network customers can subscribe to the new service, which is priced at $2.99 per month, via the satellite TV service's interactive TV portal, DISH Home, and via interactive banner ads.