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[[Gaming the System: Syfy Network teams with gaming company to change TV and video games]]
[[narrator] NBC Universal's Syfy Network and a California-based game development company]
[called Trion are working to revolutionize the way you watch TV shows ]
[Spurred on by an investment from GE Capital's Peacock Equity Fund,]
[the two are developing an online video game in tandem with a television show.]
[The TV show and the game will evolve together.]
[Lars Buttler is the CEO of Trion.]
[[Lars Buttler - CEO, Trion World Network] In the past, it has been very difficult]
[to connect television shows that are always evolving ]
[and video games that are static packaged goods software.]
[Trion, of course, makes video games that are connected, that are fully dynamic and live.]
[We have fantastic backing and the financial muscle of GE]
[We also have the great partnership with Syfy, one of their core properties.]
[And so we are making this game now with a lot of support from every side.]
[We can, in this unique setup, do things that other people would never even dare before--]
[create a video game world, a television show, that are based on the same universe,]
[they take place at the same location in the future,]
[and they not only promote each other, they literally depend on each other and co-evolve.]
[[narrator] David Howe, the President of Syfy,]
[sees the partnership with Trion as a triumph.]
[[Howe] We have two teams of creatives.]
[We have a TV team that understands character and story]
[and how a TV show works, and we have a game development team]
[that is fantastic at building a game universe]
[and a mythology and a set of characters.]
[And that joint team now has to figure out how that TV show interacts with that game]
[on a weekly basis, on a linear basis, ]
[and how the game reflects what's going on in the TV world]
[and what the TV show reflects in terms of the gaming world.]
[[Rob Hill - Sr. Producer, Trion World Network] One of the challenges]
[of building a television show and a game simultaneously is the scheduling differences.]
[We need to create all of our art, because we're fully computer generated, up front,]
[which takes lots and lots of time,]
[so we really have to think about what does the world look like?]
[What do the characters look like? How do they sound?]
[Syfy typically wouldn't do that until once they have a full script,]
[they start thinking about casting,]
[then they start to really kind of determine what the world looks like.]
[We need to do it years in advance.]
[This project, in collaboration with Syfy, in and of itself was completely different]
[than anything I've worked on in the past or even know of being done in the past--]
[a true collaboration between a television studio and a game studio at the same time.]
[Usually you have a game that's based off of a book or a television show or a movie]
[or a movie that's based off of a game.]
[We actually, from the very beginning since we're building them at the same time,]
[can really consider what each other's needs are ]
[and make sure that they fit on both sides.]
[Some of the implications to what we're trying to accomplish here]
[is to really be able to broaden the audience between the MMO game space--]
[massively multiplayer online game space--and the television show,]
[grab viewers from the television show, bring them into the game,]
[but bring gamers who are in the Trion game over into the Syfy show.]
[From a Syfy perspective, it's absolutely what our audience in particular]
[really wants to do, which is live, eat, breathe a universe, a space, a world]
[that's very interesting, very immersive 24/7]
[as opposed to just living and eating a breathing a TV show once a week for an hour.]
[Peacock Equity did a deal to invest in Trion.]
[They recognized the potential of this company, ]
[which is a state-of-the-art, start-up company that can do things]
[that no other gaming company can do.]
[It can actually create an MMOG that lives on a server ]
[as opposed to lives on somebody's laptop computer or their PC.]
[Because of that investment, clearly they wanted somebody within NBC Universal]
[to really kind of be part of that company's future,]
[and it was kind of a partnership made in heaven]
[because Trion and the Trion team are very interested in sci-fi fantasy.]
[The whole gaming world--almost 50% I think of video game titles are sci-fi fantasy--]
[and here we are in NBC Universal with the Syfy channel. [Syfy - Imagine Greater]]
[So it was an instant marriage and a marriage that I think will really work.]
