Sci Fi to launch 15 'casual' games
Four multi-player titles included in new releases
By Danny King -- Video Business, 5/28/2009
MAY 27 | DIGITAL: NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channel will release 15 videogames on its Web site within the next few months as it looks to capitalize on the popularity of casual games.
Scifi.com has already launched four so-called massively multi-player online games on its Web site, with plans to release 11 more casual games, including titles based on Battlestar Galactica and Warehouse 13, by the end of the summer, NBC Universal said in a statement this week.
"There is a tremendous overlap between people who enjoy the imagination-based entertainment on Sci Fi and people who play games," Craig Engler, senior VP and general manager of Sci Fi Digital, said in the statement. "By offering more casual MMOG's to our lineup, we're giving our visitors an experience that's much richer than a typical online game, but in a way that's still easily accessible from a simple browser window."
The games are part of an effort by the General Electric unit to improve financial performance by getting more revenue from its cable networks and capitalize on a casual-gaming market forecast by Parks Associates to reach $1 billion by 2013. General Electric said last month that NBC Universal's first-quarter operating profit plunged 45% as cable network growth was more than offset by fewer DVD releases and lower advertising rates.
Sci Fi follows its sister network USA Network and Liberty Media's Starz, among other channels, with its move into gaming titles. Last month, NBC Universal's USA Network launched its first games application on Apple’s iPhone, and Starz said it would create a casual game based on the yet-to-be released film thriller Pandorum.
In March, Viacom's Nickelodeon said it would celebrate the 10th anniversary of its SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon character debut by following up a DVD release late February with two videogames co-developed with electronic-games maker Jakks Pacific.
