Weakest Link Mobile Phone Game on Sky Active

Weakest Link Mobile Phone Game on Sky Active

Posted: September 13th, 2003.

The Weakest Link Mobile Phone Game To Debut onSky digital’s interactive service Sky Active

Are you the Weakest Link? It’s now easy to find out wherever you are,with the September 4th launch of the downloadable mobile phone version of thepopular BBC quiz show. The Weakest Link mobile game will debut on the YourGames section of Sky Active, Sky’s Interactive television serviceavailable to 6.6 million UK households.

Packed with sharp-shooting phrases and a wealth of questions, the mobile phoneversion of The Weakest Link is a single-player general knowledge quiz with noroom for the incompetent. Players must answer a series of multiple choicequestions on a variety of subject categories, which are selected at random fromEntertainment, Geography, History, General, Nature and Science. After eachcorrectly answered question, players’ potential score is increased by aprogressively larger amount. However, they only get to keep this score if theychoose to ‘bank’ before seeing the next question. The current bank and thevalue of the current question are indicated at all times by the accumulator.

Each round ends either when the player banks a target score, or when time runsout. If the player fails to bank the target amount then they are voted offwith a terse “You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye!” If instead they aresuccessful, they can select the question category they wish to “vote off” andfrom then on they will receive no further questions on that subject. The gamecontinues until two categories remain and the player enters “Sudden Death”.

Sky digital viewers will be able to purchase mobile phone version of TheWeakest Link game via Sky Active and download it to their phone using the Skydigital remote control. They can then play the game on their phones byanswering questions within the time limit; decide whether to bank or continueafter each question; and, if they successfully complete a round, vote off theirweakest subjects as they progress through the quiz. They can then send theirfinal score to Sky Active from the handset.

The top 10 scores, along with corresponding player nicknames chosen by users,will be visible on the High Scores section of Your Games, the Sky Active mobilegames portal managed and hosted by Digital Bridges. Players scoring outside thetop ten but within the top 100 scores will be able to see their ranking amongthe top 100.

The downloadable mobile version of The Weakest Link was developed in-house byDigital Bridges based on a license from BBC Worldwide. The game, which isavailable for a wide range of Nokia and Sharp Java-enabled handsets, will alsobe made available to mobile network operators and portals in the UK, as wellas in several European countries where The Weakest Link is broadcast inlocal-language versions. A retail pack version will also shortly be on sale ata number of phone and high-street UK retailers.

Miles Pearce, Head of Interactive Communications for Sky Interactive,said: “We are constantly improving the quality and range of mobile productswhich Sky customers can download to their mobiles from the Your Mobile serviceon Sky Active. We are excited to be the first digital provider in the UK andIreland to offer a The Weakest Link game to our viewers. This is also thefirst game to be integrated into our new High Scores service which givesplayers a great sense of involvement when they use these services.”

HOW TO ACCESS THE YOUR GAMES MOBILE GAMES PORTAL ON SKY ACTIVE:

• Press the Interactive button on your remote
• Select Sky Active
• Select Your Mobile
• Select Your Games
• Select Download games for Java Phones

About Sky Active

• Sky Active incorporates enhanced TV applications such as Sky News Active, Sky Sports Active, Sky Movies Active and services such as email, SMS messaging, games, banking, shopping, betting etc
• Your Mobile enables viewers to purchase mobile games, ringtones, text other mobiles and top-up their T-mobile and Virgin pre-pay phones.
• Sky Gamestar hosts 25+ TV Games including Space Invaders, Tomb Raider, Monopoly and the Cartoon Network branded games area
• High street stores currently available on Sky Active include Argos Additions, WH Smiths, Carphone Warehouse and Kitbag Sports.
• In addition to AOL Internet registered email accounts, Sky Active users can access talk21, Yahoo! and Demon.

News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2003.

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