It’s a Saturday night post birthday party and Japanese steak house dinner, so I’m doing what amounts to a linkroll post.
I’ve had some semblance of this post built for the better part of a week and what better way to share it than when I (and hopefully you too) are fat and happy and waiting for the TV Funhouse episode of SNL to start (and coming down from NFL Draft, NBA Playoffs and Guitar Hero).
That previous sentence was, quite possibly, the longest run-on and parenthetical-riddled tripe I’ve ever written and you’ve ever read.
Thppt!
Away we go:
My general thesis here is that as “gaming” and games are expanding beyoned traditional console and PC gaming and older forms of entertainment are beginning to see the power of gaming. Things like mobile/cell games (the third screen), casual web games and alternate reality gaming are all fertile ground for marketers and entertainment companies.
Lost:
The new ‘Lost’ Interactive Game is the most ambitious. It’s web-based, it tracks parallel to the linear show and it varies by continent.
Pool your clues with global fans and decipher parts of the story getting short shrift on-air. Brilliant.
[Via TV Squad]
RV:
Finally, someone came up with an interesting, branded, promotional game for the Blackberry: RV Pile-Up.
After Brick Breaker, anything seems cool, but RV Pile-Up actually makes good use of the scrool wheel on the Blackberry, is themed fairly well and feeds my need for a platformer.
[Via Micro Persuasion, Via Blackberry Cool]
American Dad:
Fox is actually co-promoting the release of American Dad and Family Guy on DVD by offering up a web-based fighting game, American Dad vs. Family Guy a la Street Fighter that pits the titular characters of each series against one another in a battle royale.
Not the best flash fighter I’ve played, but the character and VO make it work.
So there you have it. Three “traditional” (I want to say “old”) media properties – TVs and Movies – using the internet, social networks and mobile platforms to promote their products, entertain (their main goal anyway) and extend the market.
Happy Saturday!