MSNBC.com is out with a new spin on video games that lets movie theatergoers play without leaving their seats.
The online news site is entertaining consumers with a pre-movie RSS-feed video game in select theaters.
The game “NewsBreaker Live” is projected on movie screens. Players move their bodies to the left or right to control game paddles that smash falling real-time headlines with a bouncing ball. A camera positioned in front of the theater records audience movements to allow for game play.
MSNBC.com debuted the game last week at the premiere of “Spider-Man 3” at the The Bridge: Cinema de Lux theater in Los Angeles.
The game is an extension of MSNBC.com’s recent branding campaign, called A Fuller Spectrum of News (PROMO Xtra April 3, 2007).
“One thing we have learned about MSNBC.com consumers is how much they love the discovery of news,” said Catherine Captain, vice president of marketing, MSNBC.com. “This takes that discovery to a whole new level. It allows them to engage with the brand away from the computer screen.”
PR efforts and in-theater posters promote the video game.
“NewsBreaker Live” will precede the opening of “Shrek the Third,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer” “Transformers” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” The game will offered to National Amusement’s The Bridge: Cinema de Lux moviegoers in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and White Plains, NY.
The game will appear in theaters in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and White Plains, NY,
The promotion was designed to give people something fun to do and a new way to interact with the MSNBC.com brand.
“Everybody knows what it’s like to wait for a movie,” Captain said. “It’s a pain point for moviegoers. We looked for a theater group that was forward thinking” in their movie theater experience.
Brand Experience Lab developed the video game for MSNBC.com.
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