O2 Teams with Pearl & Dean to Offer Interactive 3D Game in UK Movie Theaters

UK-based wireless mobile operator, O2, announced Tuesday that it is teaming with movie-theater advertising company, Pearl & Dean, to bring an interactive 3D game, called "Asteroid Storm," to 20 Vue movie theaters across the UK this summer. According to the company, the game will "take families on a big-screen adventure that they can control from their seats" and represents the first time that movie-goers in the UK will be able to play and control an interactive 3D game.

The game is part of an ongoing marketing campaign by O2 (note: the campaign targets families) for its O2 Joggler and O2 "Your Family" Bolt On products. According to the company, the game will launch on July 10th and will sit within Pearl & Dean's first-ever 3D-only movie trailer reel. It will run ahead of the movies, "Ice Age 3 3D" and "G-Force," in the summer, and ahead of the movies, "Up" and "Toy Story 3D," in the fall. O2 anticipates that over a million families will take part in the 3D game, and that 5 million will play a supplemental group of games that the company will offer concurrently in movie theater foyers.

According to O2, "Asteroid Storm" takes place on "Starship O2," which has been trapped in an asteroid belt. The audience is told by the ship's captain that the ship has been damaged and that their help is needed to steer it back on course. By different sides of the theater putting their hands in the air, the audience is able to control the direction that the spaceship moves in, and can thereby navigate it out of danger as asteroids fly out of the screen towards them in 3D, O2 says. The game is based on technology from iO and was conceived by O2's media agency, Zenithoptimedia, with creative work carried out by VCCP and Agency Republic. The companion foyer games, meanwhile, are projection-based and include "Wac-a-roid," a game wherein players stamp out asteroids as they appear on the floor. According to O2, the interactive campaign--which the company says will also include online elements--was made possible by a partnership between Pearl & Dean and Tangibal Media that has seen the installation of floor projectors and 3D infrastructure in Vue movie theaters. "A family trip to the cinema can often be seen as an adventure in itself," Richard Murfitt, O2's head of campaigns, said in a prepared statement. "We wanted to take this idea one step further and put families into the heart of the action on the big screen. Our interactive 3D game does just that--taking them on a first-of-its-kind cinema experience that they can control." Added Mike Hope-Milne, Pearl & Dean's enterprise director: "Cinema is becoming so much more than purely a venue to watch films. Consumers want a complete interactive experience and the new 3D game from O2 offers cinema-goers the chance to become truly immersed in the action. Year-on-year we are seeing an increase in the popularity of 3D cinema with more 3D films than ever being made to meet the demand."

Movie theaters offering the 3D interactive game include Vue Leicester Square; Vue Bristol Cribbs Causeway; Vue Edinburgh Waterside; Vue Finchley Road, London; Vue Kirkstall Road, Leeds; Vue West End; AMC Manchester; AMC Birmingham; and Truro Plaza.