Box office sales are low, video game sales are high, and all the Hollywood executives are trying to figure out how to beat the Internet and get people back into movie seats. But it is not likely to happen unless a big change is made. So what do you do? You combine gaming with a movie theater experience. TimePlay Entertainment Inc. has just recently put into production technology that will allow moviegoers to play interactive games during the pre-show of a movie. Moviegoers will be able to play games on a 3.5-inch touch screen device the size of a PSP. Each seat will have a unique IP address and is all connected by a tethered arm to the seat. The device currently will support 70 players in a theater. So now when they show that ad sponsored trivia game on the screen you can play along and see results transmitted back on the big screen and the smaller screen at your seat. And of course you can buy food with the game screen. Each unit will have a easy way to take your money via swiping your credit card. You know we are lazy and will swipe away and have someone bring us food instead of getting up to get it. Other items for sale will be mobile games, ring tones, and cell phone wallpapers. The software designers at TimePlay believe that adding new interactive features to the movie-going experience will help increase ticket sales. But why hasn't Hollywood looked at the content that it's producing. If you make bad movies then people get jaded and would rather buy a $3 bootleg from 125th St. in Harlem than waste $10 at the movie theaters. The Hollywood studio industry has forgotten that going to the movies is a social experience. It's a first date, a night out with the girls, and an escape from the ills of society. We want to see pretty pictures and places that we might not be able to get to normally. But to attach a PSP-like device to my seat at the movie just so you can make me fatter and take my money quicker is LAME! If you're going to bring gaming to the movie then make the movies interact with the gaming device. Make us use it to help solve clues, or vote on situations on how the movie should continue on. Let us vote on which annoying cheerleader we want Jason to chop up first. Make it a real interactive experience. Give us something so that we will go back to the theater several times to try to make the outcome of the movie different. Keep your marketing ploys and give us real entertainment. |
