MS unveils online TV game-show for 360

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 July, 2008

Endemol helping with "1 vs. 100".

Microsoft unveiled a brand new effectively massively-multiplayer quiz game for Xbox Live during its E3 conference today.

"1 vs. 100" is being developed in association with Big Brother production company Endemol, and will see a real-life (presumably Microsoft-based) host taking control of an online quiz in a virtual studio.

It's all part of "Xbox Live Primetime", which "combines the best of television and the best of games" in the words of Xbox Live supremo John Schappert.

Not only will loads of Xbox Live users be able to take part in 1 vs. 100 simultaneously, but there will be real prizes based on the outcome.

Schappert, who hosted one of the slickest sections of Microsoft's fast-paced E3 conference, suggested that one day you will "turn on your Xbox to see what's on Live" in the same way you turn on your TV to channel-surf at the moment.

Primetime itself is one of a number of innovations going into the brand new Xbox 360 dashboard, which is set to launch this autumn as part of a free update that also introduces the Mii-like avatar system.

It will be available in North America, France, Germany and the UK and Ireland and promises "a collection of virtual game shows" along the lines of 1 vs. 100.

You can read more about the new dashboard and avatar system elsewhere on the site, and we'll be speaking to the Xbox Live team tomorrow to find out more.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (20) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LetsGo #1 4 years ago

    Have a friend on a laptop with google next to you :D

  • Rodster #2 4 years ago

    Very cool idea !

  • joff #3 4 years ago

    Give me Telly Addicts and Noel Edmonds and I'll be happy. Actually give me a jar of Nutella and Kelly Brooke and I'll be happy.

  • Dizzy #4 4 years ago

    A bit weird. Not for me.

  • RazorObsession #5 4 years ago

    google enabled mobile phones have been the core of the pub quiz winning experience for years now, as you mostly face old men who think they know everything except how to use technology. it amazes them when young twenty somethings know the most obscure trivia from their school days, and they don't suspect a thing.

    I can see google kinda ruining this as it did the pub quiz, and it hasn't even started yet, though if you only have ten seconds to answer the question which could be obscure or require a bit more depth of knowledge then they might be able to work around it.

  • CARL05 #6 4 years ago

    @ Dizzy

    what are you referring to?

    1/ Primetime and 1 vs 100

    or

    2/ Joff's Nutella

  • IronGiant #7 4 years ago

    Yawnzville.. the amount of comments just shows how popular this will be!

  • stevencole7 #8 4 years ago

    "It will be available in North America, France, Germany and the UK and Ireland"
    Yeah right......bet in the future it will be America only, like most stuff from MS!

  • trfe #9 4 years ago

    This is revolutionary. A game where every single character is a living breathing person. 1 vs 100, the 1 is a person and the 100 person mob is made up of people on xbox live. With the chance to go in there with a group of your friends to play and win prizes.

    There are going to be more games like this to come...it is a new step in gaming.

  • neilka #10 4 years ago

    It's already on television in virtually every country in the world:
    http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/1_vs_100

  • trfe #11 4 years ago

    @neilka

    Sure it's on tv in a bunch of countries but now you can you play it with 100 other people for prizes from the comfort of your home!

  • Dodgymat #12 4 years ago

    This sounds like the type of idea that comes out in a ''think outside the box, focus group brainstorming session'' but one that actually makes sense. Would love to be part of a "real" gameshow, from the comfort my armchair, with my missus/friends in the same game as well.

    WANTED

  • Crovax20 #13 4 years ago

    Funny how Endemol is a dutch company and it won't be available in the Netherlands.

  • Xerx3s #14 4 years ago

    Endemol should foad.

  • Skooch #15 4 years ago

    Next it will be Big Avatars - watch Xbox Live gamer avatars living in a virutal house 24 hours a day! LOL :D

  • Dizzy #16 4 years ago

    "Next it will be Big Avatars - watch Xbox Live gamer avatars living in a virutal house 24 hours a day! LOL :D "

    Considering what a soap my WoW guild can sometimes be, it could work :)

  • busboy33 #17 4 years ago

    I noticed that "prizes" has been left exceptionally un-defined.

    If they're talking about running constant online gameshows, then there can't be any heft to the prizes ("you won a new TV!";) or they'll go bankrupt. Even selling "commercial time" wouldn't defray the costs, since a commercial on television is seen by the viewing public (millions hopefully) and commercials in the game would be seen by the players (101 people). Who's gonna buy a commercial for an audience of 100?

    Something tells me "prizes" will equal either 80 MS points or a free "I won on 1v100" t-shirt for my Avatar. My Yippee! meter is trembling on "not so much".

  • moggsy #18 4 years ago

    @ busboy33

    They haven't said how much it'll cost to enter yet. The size of the prize will be based on a percentage of this figure.

  • busboy33 #19 4 years ago

    @moggsy:

    Now THAT was something I didn't even consider. Are they going to charge people to play?

    I presumed that the point of this was to push into the Wii/casual/non-hardcore market, meaning my mother isn't going to be interested in practicing with a dual-joystick control scheme to play Gears, but she'd love to buzz in to play a game show (heck, she yells the answers at the screen anyways . . . ). A gameshow game would entice her to at least play with my 360 when I bring it by her place, and could theoretically get some non-gamers to buy the hardware when tacked onto the Netflix download ability.

    But PAY to play? Even if everybody is charged 50 cents (I'm in the US, so for you all that's what . . . a quarter of a Pound? Fucking Bush . . . ) that's just 50 bucks for the winner (25 pounds . . . fucking Bush . . . ), and for a game like 1 vs. 100 I can't see people wanting to pony up the cash. Heck, usually 20% to 40% of the players go out in the first round -- not alot of fun if it cost me to get booted. Plus, if the "i" loses then the prize gets split among the remaining "100" so at best you end up with a few bucks.

    I just assumed it was going to be free to play, or mabye buy the game software like an XBLA game (800 points or whatever) then the actual games are free. If they bill people to play I'll be stunned, but since that would be an absolutely shoot-yourself-in-the-foot moronic business decision I suppose I can't rule it out. Their presser yesterday was suprisingly not self-destructive, so they've got to do something ruinous if they still want to call themselves a mega-game-corporation with any sense of pride.

  • smirny #20 4 years ago

    gamerpoints = prizes??