EA Aims To Change Online TV

 
By Sherri April 16, 2007



Electronic Arts has announced a rather interesting partnership with the Endemol group that would seek to marry television and video games in a hybrid creation. The Virtual Me, as its being billed, will bridge "the divide between traditional TV and videogames."

This brand new production is being created to debut during the next "Big Brother" round.

According to the EA media release, "Virtual Me combines cutting edge avatar creation technology from EA with popular TV formats from Endemol to give consumers a breakthrough way to meet, compete and socialize in online digital worlds. Avatar creation takes a leap forward with a high performing, easy-to-use tool that creates astonishingly life-like cyber-clones, with uniquely customized appearances and identities."

While using the Virtual Me, gamers or viewers, if you will, will be able to participate in virtual versions of hit shows, such as "Deal or No Deal," "Fame Academy" and more.

The web site, VirtualMe.com, is expected to go live in the coming months.

Peter Bazalgette, Chief Creative Officer, Endemol, is quoted as saying, "We’re told that people are starting to spend more time online than they are watching TV. Both markets are now important and this has huge implications for content creators. Our opportunity with Electronic Arts is to develop ideas that fully embrace the way people are consuming entertainment today.”

This does sound a whole lot like the Wii Mii or even MTV's virtual games on steroids, but with EA behind the wheel the result should be interesting to say the least.

Related:
"Big Brother All-Stars" 24 Hour Live Feed
Wii Will Change Online TV

Labels: big brother, ea games, electronic arts, mtv, online tv