iBlast Goes Gunning for Gamers With New Wireless Game Distribution

Newsletters

Content

- Articles
- Columns
- Training
- Library
- Glossary

Career Center

- Career Center Home
- View Jobs
- Post A Job
- Resumes/CVs
- Resource Center

Marketplace

- Marketplace Home
- Software Products
- Wireless Market Data
- Technical Books

News

- Daily News
- Submit News
- Events Calendar
- Unsubscribe
- Delivery Options

Community

- Discussion Boards
- Mailing List
- Mailing List Archives

About Us

- About WirelessDevNet
- Wireless Source Disks
- Partners
- About MindSites Group
- Advertising Information

Wireless Developer Network - Daily News

iBlast Goes Gunning for Gamers With New Wireless Game Distribution

iBlast To Preview Service At E3 May 21-23 -- Summer Launch Set for Subscription Service Featuring Top Game Publishers

LOS ANGELES, May 17, 2002 - iBlast, the nation's largest datacasting network, will give gamers another reason to celebrate the dog days of summer: iBlast Games. The new service will be previewed at the upcoming E3 conference in Los Angeles and is scheduled to debut this summer. iBlast Games offers subscribers a way to receive hundreds of games, trailers, demos, patches/fixes/updates and more -- over the air, for immediate use, without the Internet. Capable of delivering up to ten gigabytes of game content per day, iBlast Games will be available in selected cities nationwide following its launch in Los Angeles.

For PC gamers, iBlast Games represents a high-tech solution to some very real hurdles. With most games now larger than 100 Megabytes, reliable Internet distribution of titles is a major challenge for publishers and users. Using the powerful transmitters of digital television stations, iBlast Games will instead send entire games and game-related content into the home wirelessly, requiring only a small antenna and a receiver. Since content is delivered directly and in its entirety to their PCs before they use it, subscribers will avoid spending time downloading trailers and demos, as well as full games, online.

iBlast Games is being launched in partnership with leading computer game producers, media providers, and technology leaders including CNET Network's GameSpot, Eidos, Gigex, The Groove Alliance, Monkeybyte.com, Trymedia Systems and Wild Tangent. iBlast aims to aid the game publishing community and help shape the game business through multiple distribution windows. Initial titles will include "BMX Pro Racing," "Sony's A Knight's Tale," "Speedway," "SabreWing 2," "Golf Challenge," "Checkers," "Tank Wars," "Skyracer Impulse," "Alien X," "Galactic Patrol," "Distant Suns," "Alien DNA" and dozens more.

iBlast Games will be available at www.iblastgames.com and later through premier retail outlets in summer 2002. The "basic" package from iBlast is $9.95 per month for demos, patches, trailers and other collateral material. Games can be rented or purchased at additional cost. The antenna and other necessary hardware will retail between $99 and $199, depending on options.

"For game publishers, iBlast provides an alternative means of distributing both games and ancillary material such as trailers and demos," said iBlast CEO, Michael Lambert. "iBlast Games represents the first efficient electronic means to deliver games and high-resolution marketing materials to customers' PCs and brings the publisher the first cost-effective way to rent games electronically," Lambert continued.

"We're looking forward to working with iBlast," says Paul Baldwin, Vice President of Marketing for leading game publisher Eidos Interactive. "We feel iBlast provides a terrific platform to build excitement for Eidos titles and brings enhanced interaction with our fans," continued Baldwin.

iBlast is the country's largest datacasting network. Datacasting is the wireless transmission of data into devices with storage capacity, such as PCs and set-top boxes. As with Personal Video Recorders (e.g., TiVo(R)), data is stored until ready to be used -- with no downloads, no waiting. Datacasting delivers content through surplus capacity on digital television stations, instead of the Internet. iBlast will shortly be broadcasting a variety of channels of content, including movies, music, movie trailers, computer software and other popular media and applications.

iBlast was formed in 1999 by the leading television broadcasters in the country, including Tribune Broadcasting, Cox Enterprises, Inc., Gannett Company, Inc., The Washington Post Company, and many others. These companies boldly decided to expand broadcasting beyond linear video, for the first time in the television industry's history. Through exclusive, long-term relationships with the 261 television stations owned by these broadcasters, iBlast is capable of delivering over 150GB of data per day. The broadcasters' transmitters are in more than 150 markets in the United States, covering over 90% of the country's households.

To schedule an appointment at E3, please call Bill Horn or Heather McGuire at 310.550.7776. Demos are available May 21st - 23rd, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM at the Bank of America Conference Room A at the Staples Center. Each demo is approximately 15 minutes.

Sponsors