In case you missed it, mobile video is the next big thing. You can now watch Sky TV on your phone, download video clips and probably in
the future watch full movies. The question is what does this mean for games?
The opportunity to do video opens up the chance to go back to our gaming roots and dig up some of the worst in 'interactive movies'
from the dawn of CD. Dragons Lair I'm sure you will be glad to know has already been snapped up and will be arriving on your phones
soon. Night Trap, Voyeur and many more 'non' interactive movies will soon be dug up, brushed off and like some sick zombie movie offered
to us as the future of interactive entertainment on mobile.
There are some good things you can do with video. Having quiz games with short clips as a part of the quiz is both fun and
interactive and fits well into the mobile experience. Video can also be used to improve the quality of the games we have, imagine how
much more humiliating, yet compelling “The Weakest Link” would be if you had Ann Robinson actually telling you that
'You are the Weakest link, Goodbye'.
The non interactive cut scenes were the scourge of early CD games, but most modern games use video sequences to build suspense
and provide reward sequences. The clever mixture of non interactive and interactive and the seamless switching between the two can
obviously make the mobile game of a movie license so much closer in look and feel to the actual movie.
Taking this forward there will be innovative things that can be done with video on mobile that simply can not be done on other
formats. This is one format that has video playing and recording, as well as a broadband connection and a powerful execution engine.
Massive interactive reality shows, think The Dice Man but for real where people get to make the choices for someone and see the results
in real time. Augmented reality where the video is used to show an extended view of your reality with game
elements super imposed on top.
The potential for using video in creative and interesting ways on mobile is massive, so why are there so many indication that the
'non' interactive movie is about to make a come back?
Video