Sci-fiChannel
Latest
New Sci-Fi gaming show takes the physical challenge
The Sci-Fi Channel has partnered with Samsung and Granada America to hunt down the most well-rounded gamer in the United States as part of WCG GameQuest, a new "elimination-style" game show. Besides bragging rights (and sore thumbs), the winner of the "competition series" will also walk away with $100,000 and trips to attend future World Cyber Games events. However, to survive the eight-episode tournament, contestants will not only have to stand up to the rigors of gameplay, but also real-life "physical challenges." We hope to see the gaming elite vie for superiority by plunging head first Double Dare-style into pools of slime when WCG GameQuest hits the airwaves in the first quarter of 2009.
Sci-Fi Channel creating an MMO/TV show hybrid
With people spending less time watching TV and more time playing video games, TV networks are making increasingly unique attempts to get their audiences back. The latest example comes from the Sci-Fi Channel, which is integrating an upcoming TV series with a concurrent MMORPG that will affect and be affected by the on-air action."For example, we can tell [players] that there will be an alien invasion at a certain place in the game, at a certain time, and to be there with all their friends and be ready," Sci-Fi Channel President Dave Howe told the L.A. Times. "The outcome depends on them. And then that battle will be part of the universe in the show." Footage from in-game battles will be used in the show and the players choices themselves will guide which characters, settings and storylines are highlighted on the program.The game was originally planned to be an outgrowth of the channel's popular Battlestar Galactica remake, but the developers at Trion World Network decided it would be better to start fresh with new characters and environments. Both the show and the series will be set 80 to 100 years in the future and launched not that much sooner in the summer of 2010. More information is slated to be revealed at Comic-Con in July.
