I can almost hear the circus-like music now.
Satellite TV giant Dish Network, partnered with casual games company Oberon Media and the Tetris Company, announced the launch of Tetris TV, an interactive television game service, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tetris TV will be available to Dish subscribers for $2.99 per month, allowing viewers to play the classic game with their remote controls.
If you live under a rock, Tetris is a puzzle video game featuring a random, colourful sequence of tetrominoes (shapes composed of four square blocks each) that fall down the playing field. The object of the game? Manipulating the tetrominoes to create lines and clear the board, thus advancing to new levels.
The service will offer two versions of the game — Marathon, which has 15 levels, and 40 Lines, where players must clear, well, 40 lines as fast as possible.
The company plans to give subscribers the ability to compete in tournaments and post names and scores to boards.
“Tetris is one of the most popular games in history, and we’re proud to provide Tetris TV to our customers,” said Michael Kelly, executive vice-president of direct, commercial and advertising sales for Dish.
“The Tetris game is the perfect example of satiating the public's ravenous appetite to play casual games on all platforms, and it's a perfect fit for the iTV platform,” added Jonathan Boltax, senior director of ITV programming and service management at Oberon.
Tetris was given the title of Greatest Game of All Time in Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue, and in 2007 it ranked second in IGN’s “100 Greatest Video Games of All Time” list.
Dish is Oberon’s first partner in North America to launch Tetris TV, but the company has plans to roll out the service with additional partners around the world.
denette@tvguide.ca
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