Monday, May 18, 2009

Game Shows on XBox?

In an interesting blend of old school television and current generation consoles, game shows appear to be on their way to the XBox via XBox Live. I'll not rehash the description here (a good review is up at arstechnica), I'll leave that to those who have actually played it. But I do have to wonder how well this will succeed. To me, the game show fan base and the XBox fanbase are two largely different groups of people. Sure, there is bound to be some overlap, but how many people can you imagine pausing a game a Fallout 3 to join in a scheduled game show? Ok, once or twice, of course. But somehow, I get the feeling I'm looking at the console equivalent of a chocolate covered potato chip. Just about anyone will try it once, but success is built on repeat customers. And I haven't seen bags of salty, chocolaty, fried potato goodness flying off the shelves. This strikes me as a similar niche product. Its a clever use of available technology, no doubt about that. But it seems to be a concept in need of an audience. Time will tell I suppose. Best of luck to any of you who participate.

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