NBC Universal’s Syfy network and California-based game development company Trion World Network are about to revolutionize the way you watch TV shows and play video games. Spurred on by an investment from NBCU’s and GE Capital’s Peacock Equity fund — which invests in digital media companies in the venture capital space — the two are developing an online video game in tandem. As Lars Butler, CEO of Trion, says in the video below about the project, which has the working title One Earth: “In this unique set-up, we can do things that other people would never even dare before: create a video game world and a television show… They not only promote each other, they literally depend on each other and co-evolve.” Rob Hill, the senior producer for Trion, adds: “This project, in collaboration with Syfy, in and of itself, is completely different from anything I’ve worked on …Usually you have a game that’s based off of a book or television show or movie, or a movie that’s based off a game…. Some of the implications of what we are trying to accomplish here are to really be able to broaden the audience,” by bringing viewers from the show into the game and vice versa.
Tomorrow, we’ll bring you Part 2 of our video series — “Peacock Equity: Investing in Next-generation Media” — which will take a closer look at the unique collaboration between Trion and NBCU by examining the Peacock Equity fund itself. In that video, we’ll hear strategy from Michael Chen, President and CEO of Media, Communications & Entertainment for GE Capital, and we’ll hear about some of the fund’s recent investments from Lauren Zalaznick, who heads NBCU’s Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks.
* Read about the Peacock Fund’s investment in BlogHer
* Read about Peacock’s investment in EveryZing
* Read “What’s On? A new Comcast/NBCU media venture” on GE Reports
* Read updates about the recently announced deal between NBCU and Comcast
* Learn more about GE Capital in our recent GE Reports stories