Service Links Mobile Games to TV
Dialing into the fast-growing market for mobile games, a San Francisco-based start-up is poised to unveil a new service today that it hopes will make television viewers as hooked to their cellphones as they are to remote controls.
AirPlay Network Inc. said it would introduce a lineup of cellphone games tied to live television broadcasts. While watching TV, subscribers could use their cellphones to compete against others in real time by predicting plays in sports, choosing winners on reality TV shows or picking answers on game shows.
The first product, AirPlay Sports, is due for release in the fall to coincide with the start of the professional football season. An NFL-related AirPlay game, for instance, would ask cellphone quarterbacks to predict the offense’s next moves -- a pass or a run -- as the real game unfolded live on television.
Other games tied to reality TV and game shows will be launched next, the company said.
AirPlay subscribers would have to use an Internet-connected cellphone to play. They would download games to their handsets directly through AirPlay’s website or through a partnering wireless carrier. The subscription fee has not been disclosed yet.
“We’re creating a multiplayer experience and a social network synced with television,” said AirPlay Chief Executive Morgan Guenther, a former president at TiVo Inc. The idea, he said, is to transform TV from a passive pastime to an engaging, competitive experience.
Guenther says the concept differs from earlier, failed attempts to make TV interactive because AirPlay uses the ever-ready cellphone as the interface instead of an Internet-connected television. “Chances are the cellphone is right next to them already,” he said.
The service also factors in the social aspects of gaming that have drawn millions of players to compete for rankings on community-like scoreboards, Guenther said. Other game companies, such as Digital Chocolate Inc., also have introduced multiplayer-type games for cellphones.
AirPlay is backed by $4 million from Redpoint Ventures and cellphone technology provider Qualcomm Inc.
