Playcast brings its cloud gaming to France
Signs deal with Bouygues Telecom, Bbox Games will go live in Spring
French media company Bouygues Telecom and Playcast Media have joined forces to launch a new cloud gaming service, Bbox Games.
"We are very proud to be the first telecom operator in the French market to bring such high profile games franchises and AAA titles directly to our customers' TVs, through an easy-to-use interface," said Olivier Roussat, CEO of Bouygues Telecom.
The service will take on current cloud gaming competitors OnLive and Gaikai, charging a small extra fee to Bouygues Telecom subscribers. Some of the first titles available on the service will include MotoGP, Sonic Generations, Homefront, Lego Batman and Call Of Duty.
"France is one of the most advanced markets in the world when it comes to video games and digital TV services," added Playcast Media CEO Guy de Beer.
"Bouygues Telecom recognises that it can differentiate itself in a competitive marketplace by offering this new service which features AAA games.
Playcast is currently partnered with publishers like Activision, Atari, Capcom, Codemasters, Disney, Sega, THQ and Warner Bros.
"We are now bringing high-end games to a more casual audience, for example - users who play games on their mobiles or Facebook but would like to refrain from buying a console and games, particularly when both are soon out of date. Pay-TV subscribers across the world tell us they already have enough boxes and remote controls in their living room. For this audience, the concept of choosing games from their existing EPG is really appealing."
Bouygues Telecom has around 11,000,000 mobile customers and 1,120,000 broadband customers, and covers 99 per cent of the French population. Playcast was founded in 2007, and currently features ex-Vivendi CEO Agnès Touraine on its board.
"Playcast is ideally positioned to lead the fast-growing market for games-on-demand on the TV front, with its breakthrough, low-latency technology," said Touraine.
"Operators can now take advantage of Playcast's state-of-the-art video processing technology to deliver a better consumer experience, allowing players to access popular games from their TV sets without having to buy game DVDs or consoles."
The service will be introduced in France this spring. A similar Playcast service is currently available in Portugal, Spain and Singapore.