Because the fat cat cinema owners need to make a few more bucks and the hordes need a new way to spend their phat nerd cash, a Canadian cinema chain is stepping up to the challenge.
Beginning Friday August 15th, Cineplex Entertainment, one of Canada’s largest theater chains, will be offering theater rentals to X-Box owners looking to play their games on the big screen. Gamers will have the opportunity to book two-hour sessions at 29 Cineplex theatres across the country for the measly cost of $179 plus tax. Each session is limited to a group of 12 and individuals will be able to play their own games or borrow them from a supplied library. I can just see the hordes of 20 something gamers playing GTAIV on the big screen with surround sound.
Scouring the Cineplex website, I notice that they haven’t updated it to include details on the rentals, namely which 29 theaters. I’m also assuming that Cineplex will provide the gaming console and you just bring your games.
A couple of things to consider: though you can have a party of up to 12, the console only allows 2 users at a time, there are also no details on whether on-line play will be allowed though I’m going to assume that it won’t be an option that is available immediately. I also have a feeling that as cool as this sounds, it’s going to appeal more to the hordes of birthday party goers (read: kids) than any actual gamers. Thought it could be cool, I highly doubt a bunch of adults will sit around, drinking non-alcoholic beverages, waiting patiently for their turn at the controls. That sounds LAME.
The rentals will be available during the theaters’ downtime which means when no movies are playing which, for the most part, is early in the morning. Yeah, let me get up early to shell out $180 to play some lame ass game on the big screen.
On the bright side of things, it’s nice to see Cineplex trying new things. I’m hoping they’ll realize that no-one cares about the X-Box anymore. Suggestion: get a few Wii’s, get people to bring their own controllers and provide a few awesome games (Mario Kart!). You’re welcome. I’ll wait for the cheque to come in the mail. Or even better, how about online gaming on the big screen?
Thanks to Dale for the heads up on this amusing development.
I remember DREAMING about this when I was a kid. I always thought it would be fun to hook my Atari or Colecovision up to a projector somehow and play on the big screen.
I still think it would be fun (like you said, GTA IV would be sweet), but I’m not going to pay $200 to do it. $50? Possibly.
In Ontario, that would be $16.95 per person if you had 12 – not bad for a night/aft of entertainment.
I would imagine that you’d set up a tournament style for the 2v2ers. It’s an interesting concept but 12 people in 1 theatre feels pretty echo-y.
Now if it was MMO’s, especially PvP or RvR with groups/teams – it would be totally awesome.
Hey Shannon – check out the link at the bottom of the story – it’s to a concept being tested in Spain about tournament style gaming where people bring their laptops. Looks and sounds kinda cool…
Hey Cineplex…
Why don’t you concentrate on making film going a fun experience. Lately you’ve been pissing me off way to frequently. Instead of videogame playing, why don’t you open up a couple of those screens to play current release films, that aren’t the 100 million dollar megaflicks.
… because that would cost a lot more than simply hooking up an Xbox. A LOT more.
I’ve always wanted to try this.
Think how Call of Duty 4 would be on this bad boy.
But I have to ask, why only Xbox?
@swarez – Microsoft incentive? I don’t know, it’s just a guess. Hopefully they’ll have more information available tomorrow, I’d love to check out all the details.
This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Cineplex (and the former Famous Players) were always about THEME PARK atmosphere, not film-going atmosphere.
Still, it’s a curious Idea.
6-7 years ago, we used to use the projector in the big conference hall at work to play PlayStation2 games, with about a dozen of us, (TEKKEN, or D.O.A.) and it was a blast.
Also, keep in mind that you’d be playing on (likely) a high-end consumer projector, not the digital projectors that they use for digital cinema. You’d be using the thing they run the commercials and ‘pre-show’ crap on before the trailers start….still pretty solid, but not quite the high-end. Don’t know about the sound.
Interesting info on the link, but the image (which included an AD on the right hand side) and this quote “developing theater technology that will allow moviegoers to play 15 minutes to 20 minutes of ad-sponsored interactive games before the movie starts.” made me go Ewwwwww!! That makes if feel like another way to force ads.
But – OMG, I didn’t even think about the sound factor – that would be the coolest. I find I have a much faster reaction time to sound over visuals when gaming, which is really key for the kinda stuff I like. It the sound was awesome it would be..well .. awesome.
heh, not to get too geeky on y’all or anything…
Multi-player Halo… *shudders at the coolness factor*
Also, hooking a Wii up to this thing would be fun as hell.
We’ve done this a few times at my work. Trust me when I say it is fucking awesome. We’ve done both PS3 and 360, but have yet to Wii it up. Their is talk of doing it over at The Uptown, with its 900 seats and balcony to sit in, which would be amazing.
And I’m pretty sure they would have to run a DLP projector to do this Kurt. If that theater has ever run a digital film then they have no excuse not to.
Actually, an x-box360 supports four players on one console, not two. But it’s up to the game to support it. I would definitely hope the theater’s suplied console comes with a gold subscription to live and in internet connection so you can play online.
As for a Wii, I think it’s lower resolution graphics would suffer way more on the huge screen than the HD graphics of a 360 or PS3.
And yes, this will only be in theaters with digital projection.
“Actually, an x-box360 supports four players on one console, not two.”
Good point AD. Hubby mentioned this as well. For some reason, I totally forgot it supported 4, likely because I’ve never seen anyone use all 4 controllers!
As for a Wii, I think it’s lower resolution graphics would suffer way more on the huge screen than the HD graphics of a 360 or PS3.
With a decent DLP projector there wouldn’t be any distortion. It would look the same as on a standard TV, only 30 feet high.
Games actually tend to look better on the big screen then DVD’s, simply because of the higher resolutions and frame rates. It’s pretty amazing how good games look projected on screen.