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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

GDC11 - Panel: 120 Connected Users And Counting

- Of broadband consumers, over 20% already connecting their device to computer.  Of type, gaming is 4th. 

- by 2014 expect over 120 million connected tv units sold.

- Is this de-ja vu? It seems that every 20 years or so creators think interactive TV is going to work, and every time consumers think not. 

1. Lance Koenders - Intel Digital Home Group
- Dept. coined the term 'smart tv' - category of products like smartphone, etc.   It means unlimited access to content (eg browser, flash, html5), it has open app platform, has an immersive experience). 
- TV market is in 3-400 mill units range, so 120 mill is not that big yet. 
- seeing this transition happen quickly. Happening for much same reasons that it did for smartphone. 
- platform must be open for people to participate.  Beginnings of open OS are starting to appear. eg. Google TV was the first. Boxee, Meego, Win 7 embedded are starting to pop up.  
- starting to have GPUs that rival Wii, and good performance to do Wii calibre shading. 
- Intel has big investment in this tech.  Fundamentally about driving PERFORMANCE. 
- starting to talk in the playstation3 range on TVs in the not too distant future. 

2.  Gabriel, founder of Transgaming. 
- Transgaming started as an end-user operated platform.  
- One of the companies driving mac gaming today. Have also worked with Intel.
- cross platform is hard for developers. Even if you know what you're doing. 
- created technology that takes existing windows based game technology, wrap it in their GameTree portability that allows PC based DirectC content to be easily run on TV.
- ANGLE provides OpenGL ES 2.0 on Windows. GameTreeTV allows GL passthrough to HW. 

3. GameTree dude
- GameTreeTV - blend of digital distribution platform for Connected TV. 
- Why not an app store? They look at the TV marketplace as a place for video on demand, on demand channels. GameTree allows on demand gaming platform. 
- Categorizes and filters in the way that a cable channel like HBO On Demand does. 
- has a rental or purchase model. 
- GameTree TV has a developer Program. 
- currently a developer competition with a prize of $50K

4. Legacy Interactive
- focused on random content. Mostly TV shows. First to take a drama (law and order) and turn it into a game. 
- They 'gamify' tv properties. 
- Release games on DS, PC, Mac etc. 


Why processors on the TV Box and not the Cloud?
- Intel dude thinks there will be a place for both models. 
- User experience shows users like to have a lot of personalization. When you take this flexibility (ownership pieces) away, desire goes away.  If something is local, people know it persists.
- he is personally not convinced that streaming services will last long term. eg. not as accesible in rural markets.
- transgaming as something to get to more quickly. 

Innovation?
- iphone changed the way people interact with content, will this happen with SmartTV?
- impressed at how many multi device games are appearing - used Scrabble as an exmaple. Play on your tablet, but the TV is a social device. 
- "tablet is a personal device, TV is a social device" - how to make that work with dual device gaming.
- one thing they hope happens is to find a way to integrate live video streams into games (eg fantasy sports with live sports gaming).

Does an App Store work on a TV?
- No one truly knows if this will work or not. People are gravitating to TV in the expectation it will entertain them.   Interactive like HBO, NETFLIX create a new experience with the same old premise - it's content that entertains. 
- To do gaming in TV space, it's about presenting content, and present opportunity to jump in to that experience for 10 or 15 minutes as opposed to linear for 2 hours.

OS and Smart TV
- Wide range of different OS that are coming out. Fair diversity in cable operatives building on that also. 
- Really try and isolate gaming app developers to bring a consistent user development environment. 

ARE NETWORKS EMBRACING THIS TECHNOLOGY
- reality is that TV studios are making $$$ from broadcast of their shows across channels. When you go to them with a related game, they don't really care or bother as it's small change.
- when it comes to talking to studios about making a TV property related game to connected tv, it's a hard conversation. 
- Also legal license issues - games can be seen as different to 'interactive tv' in how it relates to a TV property. 
- don't want a TV game to compete with the viewers time with their tv channel. 
- now, there's more discussion now than there used to be (even pre-CES 2011!)


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