Playcast Media nabs support from big name publishers, aims to bring STB gaming to US

GDC is winding down here in San Francisco, but Playcast Media is hoping to snag its 15 minutes by announcing new partnerships with Atari, Capcom, Codemasters and THQ (to name a few) for use in its "console-free games-on-demand" service. 'Course, streaming games in through a set-top-box is nothing new, but few operators in the States offer such a thing with any real substance behind it. Playcast's solution enables titles to be pushed through existing cable and telco STBs, and we're told that the US market is next in line to get gifted. We're not given any significant details beyond that, but we're pretty jazzed about big name publishers signing on to finally give this distribution method a bit of credence. Now, if only this Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD shipped with a SIXAXIS controller, we'd be golden.

Show full PR text

Playcast Media Announces Game Publisher and Studio Partnerships for First Ever Pay TV Games-On-Demand Service

Playcast to Unveil Cable and IPTV Service at Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco March 9-12, 2010

San Francisco, CA-- (PRWeb) March 10, 2010 -Playcast Media announced today at the Game Developers Conference partnerships with some of the video game industry's top publishers including Atari, Capcom, Codemasters and THQ, as well as independent publishers/developers DDI, Strategy First and Zushi. Playcast Media delivers high-quality console-free video gaming directly through existing Cable and IPTV set-top boxes and is the first gaming-on-demand technology for Cable and IPTV in the world.

"The combination of Playcast Media's unique streaming technology and a diverse portfolio of high-quality game titles enables us to offer an attractive and robust all-in-one gaming solution to millions of Cable and IPTV customers. This is a new play for pay TV operators and a massive additional distribution channel for the games' publishers," said Guy De Beer, CEO of Playcast Media.

For the first time in pay TV history viewers will be able to play their favorite video games directly from their pay television set-top boxes without a gaming console. Playcast Media's system uses a proprietary new technology to deliver any PC video game to ordinary cable and telco set-top on-demand systems. This field proven technology uses ultra high-speed processing to handle off-the-shelf games and distribute the game's audio/ visual output as a regular video stream

"We offer video game publishers the most secure and user-friendly way to monetize their content and we're very proud to have some of the biggest names in the video game industry partner with us. Content is the driver of this business and we're committed to deliver the best titles around," said Playcast Media's COO, Alon Shtruzman.

Playcast Media is a complete games-on-demand solution for Cable and IPTV operators, which enables next-generation IP owners to seamlessly access hundreds of millions of connected households, with the ease of already established billing customer care and support systems. Playcast Media accelerates the convergence between TV and gaming to present significant new business opportunities for publishers, broadcasters and advertisers alike

In addition to unveiling their service at the Game Developers Conference, Playcast Media will launch their new Games-On-Demand service this spring via Hot Cable in Israel. Playcast is also now engaged in active technical trials with some of Europe's leading IPTV and cable networks. This is the first of a series of announcements Playcast Media will make this spring.

About Playcast

Playcast Media is a privately held, start-up company based in Israel and London, UK. Playcast Media was founded by Guy De Beer, a telecom and Cable veteran, previously head of Harmonic's VOD product lines and Dr. Nathan Peterfreund, previously the principal scientist in Harmonic [NASDAQ: HLIT], and one of the authors of the acclaimed H.264 compression standard. Alon Shtruzman, a seasoned media executive, who held senior positions at Fox international channels joined Playcast in 2008 as COO and President of Media. Playcast Media is represented in the United States by United Talent Agency. For more information about Playcast, please visit www.playcast-media.com

[Dafrety Posted Mar 12th 2010 6:33PM]

My eyes must be going, I read Playcast as Pussycat.

[Post31 Posted Mar 12th 2010 6:52PM]

Does this mean my cable bill is going to go up

[AltairDusk Posted Mar 12th 2010 8:04PM]

Considering how slow the menus on your average cable set top box are I can't see any of these games looking very good.

[ckrames1234 Posted Mar 12th 2010 8:23PM]

Out of the hotel room, and into my living room. *sarcasm* AWESOME! *sarcasm*

[coolbho3000 Posted Mar 12th 2010 8:42PM]

Why are they showing a bunch of shovelware titles?

[Ridgecity Posted Mar 12th 2010 9:20PM]

At least they got the Wii boxes look for their non existant product.

[uShak Posted Mar 12th 2010 10:41PM]

@Ridgecity

Haha, matter of fact it's just the wii box art with the 'wii' erased from it.

[Nightwheel Posted Mar 13th 2010 1:15AM]

How one can put the crap known as Ninjabread man along side with a good game like Lego Indiana Jones is is puzzling to me.

[gadirussak Posted Mar 13th 2010 4:05AM]

I live in Israel and work for the cable company named HOT.
iCast introduced the Games On Demand (GOD) service for HOT about six months ago. I happen to have participated in this pilot and beta-tested it. What can I say? It doesn't support HD, has sub PlayStation 1 graphics, poor response time, shitty games and it's mostly for little children. I can't imagine basically anyone playing Call of Duty on this weird platform.

[gadirussak Posted Mar 13th 2010 4:09AM]

correction: the graphics can be as good as ps2, but video encoding makes it all look so crappy.