Who needs consoles when you can play games directly through your TV?
In the red corner, we have LG Electronics: Internationally renowned consumer electronics manufacturer known for its quality HDTVs, cellular phones and any number of other things that go “beepity boop.” In the blue corner, we have Unity Technologies: Creator of the increasingly successful, impressively functional Unity game development suite. Before today they were two disparate companies, but a new deal will see the former leverage the latter’s tech to create videogames expressly for its upcoming line of “smart TVs.”
This follows a deal LG recently struck with cloud gaming service Gaikai to bring the company’s catalogue of streaming titles to LG’s new TVs.
As Gamasutra explains, the 2012 HDTV line is equipped with “a new gyroscopic motion controller called the Magic Motion Remote, as well as a more powerful video processor meant to handle a wide variety of games.” The goal, it seems, is to offer an all-in-one gaming solution that enables consumers to stuff their antiquated gaming consoles into a closet, never to be seen again.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for multitasking technology and simplifying the gaming experience (if only because I’ve got way too many cables running amok throughout my apartment), but if LG hopes to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo, it will need some pretty big titles. Nabbing Gaikai’s library is a good step, but otherwise it seems that LG’s initial slate of games will consist largely of titles ported from mobile phones.
Brain-dead simple puzzlers and cheap clones of classic games might be enough to woo the casual set, but these are $1000-plus HDTVs LG is trying to move. No amount of Angry Birds is going to convince your average middle-aged woman that she needs to ditch her current set for a fancy 2012 LG model. Hardcore gamers however, if given the right incentive, will bankrupt themselves buying these things. Propers to LG if it can figure out how to offer that kind of enticement.
Source: Gamasutra
Published: Feb 7, 2012 08:25 pm