Game Show Battle Heats Up Online
thestandard.net
By Lessley Anderson
The top online game show sites, Uproar and Sony's
The Station, are at it again in a battle that pits
Family Feud against Jeopardy. Uproar's recent
partnership with media company Pearson Television
gives Uproar's parent, E-Pub Holdings, online rights
to high-profile game show brands Match Game and
Family Feud in exchange for a 10.9 percent equity
stake in E-Pub.
Sony Online Entertainment, creator of the online
versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, has
claimed the edge on the high-trafficked Uproar
because of its access to a TV network and
well-known brands. Now Uproar can claim the
same.
Attendees of last year's NATPE trade show, the
television industry's most hyped event, could have
predicted the current online battle. The big buzz
was the return of the game show. At that time,
E-Pub Holdings, creator of Uproar, had been
developing successful cobranded versions of their
strangely popular trivia game Cosmo's Conundrum
for sites including CBS SportsLine and CNN. Sony
got in the game last spring, when it launched online
versions of its popular game shows Wheel of
Fortune and Jeopardy. Now, one year later, TV has
caught up. Match Game is back on the air and a
new version of Family Feud is scheduled for the fall
- and Uproar is slated to develop multiplayer online
versions for them both.
"This is very good for us, because we know how to
make game shows work online," says E-Pub's
president, David Becker.
The online versions of Match Game and Family
Feud will be hyped on air, in much the way Sony
publicizes its Wheel and Jeopardy sites. Uproar
and its affiliated sites currently have 4 million unique
visitors a month, while Sony lags behind, according
to RelevantKnowledge. Sony, however, claims 2.3
million registered users.
"As far as Pearson and E-Pub go, it's certainly
exciting news for the games world in general," says
Sony Online Entertainment President Lisa
Simpson. "Pearson has some great titles, [but]
we're continuing to tap into the vast library at
Columbia TriStar. We think it's a challenging area."
Sony will launch a much-talked-about online version
of The Dating Game sometime this quarter,
complete with funky avatars and the ability to flirt
and chat in real time. In a move away from its game
show market, the company has also started a
game-development company called Red Eye
Interactive to create titles that will appeal to The
Station's active gamer audience. Red Eye is a
spin-off of Sony Computer Entertainment Group's
989 Studios, which has created fantasy games for
the Sony PlayStation.
"Our goal is to be the dominant gamer destination
on the Net, so we want to offer a broad slate of
games," says Simpson. "We've noticed crossover
in our college student audience from role-play
games like ChronX to our game show properties."
Uproar's Becker says his company has no plans to
woo the gamer audience.
"The gamer-teen market seems to be Sony's new
thing. As a company, I think what we're looking to
do is to reach broad audiences where we can on
the Net." And that means game shows.
|
