Web Driver 4.0 Makes a Tech Breakthrough

Electronic Gaming Business, March 10, 2004

With the release of its Web Driver 4.0 online game platform late last month, WildTangent may be bumping online gaming to a new level of quality and versatility. The first run of racing titles for Chrysler (http://chrysler. games.yahoo.com) have console quality 3D graphics and responsiveness yet load on the desktop within a minute. The new software, available for license to third party developers, uses the same console engine behind the Xbox Music Mixer that WildTangent developed for Microsoft last year. By adding to it an artful streaming technology, the company is exploring a new way of delivering retail quality games via Web pages.

We were quite frankly wowed by the Chrysler games. The textures and details in these racers are light years ahead of the typical online advergames that preceded them in the genre. The Web Driver 4.0 engine puts a speedometer, track map, timer, and race position stats on the screen along with very good 3D modeling. And we were up an running in under a minute.

It is all in the Content Delivery Architecture, says Dave Madden, EVP of sales, marketing and business development, Wild Tangent. "There's a total of 11 vehicles, three levels, and power ups and complements," he says. The entire file size is a total of 15 MB but you get into the game in the first Meg and a half and the rest is brought in intelligently."

In addition to better advergaming, the CDA technology could power a more viable games-on-demand model where better games can be delivered more quickly to the desktop than massive one-time downloads required in many of the on-demand delivery systems. WildTangent is currently in discussions with developers and publishers about using the engine for digital delivery of retail titles or as a way to make more robust online demos.

Madden says that Web Driver 4.0 also provides developers with greater flexibility than past iterations because the code is modular. "The new technology allows us to have developers develop content and only pull in the parts of the technology you need for the game."

WildTangent is developing several promotional games tied to larger ad campaigns as well as sports titles in connection with TV sports programming. In the past, the company has developed promotional games for Nike and sports games for Foxsports.com.

Madden says that CDA and Web Driver 4.0 clearly are capable of running on connected consoles eventually, but "the console market is different from the PC market and I would say that we are squarely focused on PC online in terms of immediate usage."

WildTangent hasn't settled on a schedule of licensing fees for the new engine but is negotiating deals individually at the moment. In our use of Web Driver 4.0, the technology looked very promising. The ability to get an online player up and running in a title in a minute with sophisticated gameplay and graphics opens up a host of possibilities.

We think that one of the strongest uses of this sort of robust digital delivery system is for online demos of retail games. Like on-demand gaming, downloadable demos of retail releases require lengthy downloads that tend to favor a niche audience of hard core gamers. A more accessible, faster delivery system could help games marketers promote a wider variety of their games outside of the core download sites, perhaps on lifestyle content sites that attract females and more casual gaming audiences.

Contact: Dave Madden, 310/430-4059

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