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Interview: Syfy's Howe Talks 'Always-On' Transmedia Experiences
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC, Exclusive]
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April 27, 2010
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The true strength of video games is that it's more than a passive medium -- it offers consumers the opportunity to interact with worlds, stories and experiences. Now, through a series of partnerships, science fiction-oriented cable channel Syfy is hoping to use that interactivity as just one point of entry in rich transmedia experiences.
Cross-media properties -- IP that originates in no single medium but is conceived as platform-independent -- are a big part of Syfy's strategy in the years to come, with video games playing a pivotal role. In yesterday's Gamasutra interview with Trion, we touched on the exciting possibilities for cross-media in the company's partnership with Syfy.
And aside from the company's partnership around the Trion MMO, Syfy has also announced that it's teaming up with publisher THQ to extend the company's gaming properties, in addition to collaborating on new cross-media ideas.
"It's a very exciting thing for us to be doing," Syfy president Dave Howe tells Gamasutra. "And it's an obvious move for us, in the sense that we know that our audience is passionate about gaming, technology and popular culture."
Naturally the same audience that enjoys shows like Ghost Hunters, Firefly and Stargate would most likely be interested in video game IP, and passionate genre fans often seek ways to enjoy their favorite universes outside of the static TV experience, and it's to that passionate fan Syfy is responding, says Howe.
The 24-7 Consumer
"We really wanted to build a business beyond the cable screen, and video gaming is top of our list," he explains. "As a brand and as a genre it's a no-brainer, and I think we're being very strategic in terms of the partnerships that we've announced."
The main goal, says Howe, is to break new ground. "Co-creating and retrofitting IP" across media, as he describes it, is something that hasn't happened in a large or visible way yet. As Howe says, normally when a game ties into a comic, movie or TV series, it's directly derived from it, not created simultaneously. "If you conceive something from the get-go to be transmedia, to be platform-neutral, you know your chance of success is going to be greater that way," he asserts.
And the desire for transmedia properties is somewhat unique to the quintessential Syfy consumer, he continues. "We have this very passionate audience that wants to consume these properties, stories and characters 24-7... but between those [television] hours, there's no way for you to really interact on an ongoing basis."
"What's fantastic about this strategy is, if we get it right, we'll figure out ways for people to consume those characters and stories across multiple platforms whenever and however they choose to," says Howe. "It's an always-on world we're living in, and that's exciting to us. Dynamic, immersive experience is critical to future storytelling."
The Partnerships
The Trion partnership was the first one the channel announced, and the THQ venture came about in a similar way, says Howe. The latter partnership will start out with Syfy and THQ working to figure out how to create a movie and TV series around colorful, friendly Wii title De Blob.
That title, something of a surprise success for THQ, is a good fit for transmedia because of its all-ages vibe, and because of its universe -- its premise, about creating both literal and figurative color in an oppressive black-and-white world, leaves plenty of room for imagination.
"It transcends kids, because it has a smart adult vibe going on," says Howe. "These characters don't speak any particular language. It has a lot of things going for it."
Syfy and THQ will also work together on television properties around the Red Faction universe -- "again, we see things in there that are very easy," suggests Howe, indicating that a "movie and potential series" are in the works.
In the long-term, however, the two companies want to co-develop properties. But what makes a good cross-media property, and what considerations come up in the creation phase of a truly platform-agnostic IP? How about in choosing the best partners?
Learning Experiences
"I think the learning curve for this has been fascinating," says Howe. "For these joint ventures, we want to work with companies who share our co-creation vision and actually are collaborative team players. The way that it's worked bringing together game and TV developers has been very fun to watch."
Fun, but also with plenty of learning opportunities on both sides, Howe says: "We're not experts in gaming, and these game developers are not experts in TV, so it's been kind of a win-win in terms of shared expertise."
"In terms of what you need to be successful as a piece of transmedia IP is you need to have those elements that work from a TV perspective around characterization, stories, real drama," he says. "You need emotionality and relatability, sufficiently well-defined characters with a backstory, and with vulnerabilities."
In his view, this is an element of games less well-developed that can benefit from a collaborative television partnership. "On the gaming side, you need mythology, you need the element of a quest, and you need an element of shoot-em-up action where appropriate," Howe says. "When you bring together all of the great ingredients ... you have this laundry list of things that you need to hit for this sort of property to work," he says.
"It's something that we're learning as we go," he adds. "We've come quite a long way and we won't come all the way until we launch something."
And when they do launch something, Howe hopes Syfy will be able to offer its audience more than it ever has, through the interactivity inherent in the medium of gaming.
"In passive TV viewing, we're always sitting there on the edge of our seats wanting to shout at what we're seeing -- we want to express some kind of opinion," he says. "What interactivity does is it gives people more of a stake in the entertainment experience. It gives them more of a role and a voice in shaping that experience, and I think that's very exciting for our audience."
Challenges
Although Trion has declined to announce a date for its MMO, the first co-developed property in Syfy's transmedia strategy, Howe tells us they're targeting 2011. He also says he's been surprised by what a mammoth undertaking an MMO is: "We're used to doing a pilot and getting a series up and running within a year," Howe laughs. "So this is something that's been a little difficult for us to adapt to."
"But the MMO universe -- it's so phenomenally deep and detailed! I think if you look at our Trion game, its 'bible' is something like three inches thick," he says. "I'm just overhwelmed by the scale of it. A TV series somewhat more manageable, so there's been this element of 'where do we start'?"
"I think it's taken us several writers to get to a writer that really can make that work, so that's been challenging," he adds.
Another challenge in creating cross-media IP, says Howe, is the importance of ensuring properties still work on their individual platforms, no matter how agnostic the concept is: "You can't lose sight of that in the development process," he stresses. "You have to adapt to whatever the platform can provide."
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@ L Foz
But we can agree that they are doing 'something' and that it's just not being successful, yes? So I guess my point is you've stated a position and left it undefined. Tell me 'how' they'll mess it up, what mistakes in partnership selection and opportunities are being done. Give your concerns about how they will ruin in either using history or examples.
So I guess I am trying to get more from your post because it sounds kind of petty. What mistakes are they making, how did you percentage estimate of 100% get put together? Is their failure intended or just misguided? (i.e. by pure random sample on scan-tron tests, getting 100% wrong in a large enough pool of questions is pretty unlikely.) Error, like anything, is error prone so why only failures from your point of view?
You just need to look at the history of this station to understand that it why it fails so badly. From its inability to actually survive as a Sci-Fi only network, a failure to provide any sort of programming that meets its specialty channel branding (its current incantation is real pale/poor imitation of SpikeTV), to its constant attempts at rebranding to attract viewers, its inability to have any sort of creative or quality control over original IP that it owns and licenses out and worst of all the attrocious ways that it interferes and destroys the original programming that it does create.
I agree that my original post (and likely this one) sound petty, but when you look at the history of this channel and its past actions you will realize that their attempts to talk about trans-media/cross-media products is more smoke and mirrors and hot air than anything else. These guys simply do not get it, they have never gotten it, they have zero passion for the genre or what they are doing and the fact that they like to pretend to act as if they know anything of what they are talking about is insulting to developers of every medium. Why? Because SyFy will lead the charge, fail, and then make the general media afriad of trying the same thing for another 10 years because they will say "well if a big group like NBC|Universal cannot do it, what hope do we have".
Don't get me wrong, in the right hands the IP that they own and control along with the possibiliy of opening doors for more Science Fiction properties to properly done cross-media development would excite people to no end, and if it was any other Science Fiction TV network in the world talking about these types of plans I truely would be excited. The last thing this emerging market needs is a Square-FinalFantasy movie situation where it scares off investors and taints the market for other products like it for 10+ years.
For example Sumo Digital is working closely with BBC productions to produce titles for the Doctor Who series as episodic content which dovetails into the episodes as they are being released in Britain. This is interesting on a number of level as it does some level of cross product marketing, review, and possibly development.
Then there are companies like Telltale, Legacy Interactive, and FOX, I believe, that are all trying to included titles with content based on television franchises.
So I guess SyFy might fail in as much as any company might fail. But I always like to say, have a plan since you never know when it might become necessary. In effect, I treat it as a thought experiment...a what if. You make some solid points, have a good focus on failures, but who and how do you remove such failures? At what point in the development pipeline do certain considerations have to come into effect, triggers for operation plans go into motion?