Launched in parallel with Sci Fi’s recent announcement of the formation of Sci Fi Ventures, a long-term growth project initiative to diversify Sci Fi’s portfolio of offerings to include media and non-media businesses into a global lifestyle brand, the company has announced their partnership with Acclaim Games.

Both free-to-play based Acclaim and ZooKazoo are slated to develop a new series of online games and entertainment destinations, further leveraging the love that Sci Fi fans have for one of the world’s most lucrative entertainment genres.  Acclaim will create an exclusive label for Sci Fi, and will jointly develop games, with the ultimate goal of spreading these titles out across various platforms, products, and other forms of media.  First out of the gate will be a new game currently titled ‘Tales of Magic’, and is expected to launch on scifi.com this spring.

ZooKazoo, a virtual world focused primarily on the 6-12 year old age group will create the ‘Sci-Fi Club’ that will reside inside ZooKazoo’s world.  Only one year old, ZooKazoo focuses on collaborative games and youth generated content and already has some impressive user statistics including average user sessions lasting over an hour per login.  Given that one of ZooKazoo’s tenets is to provide a safe environment for kids to develop and create their own ideas around imagination, the Sci Fi Club area of the world could very well be a massive hit with users, and naturally draw in an entire new segment of future rocket builders.

This move into the gaming space also heralds the beginning of a strategic move by Sci Fi, or should I say SyFy, as the company will soon be known as, to bring the genre to the masses.  Sparked on by an entire new generation of Science Fiction fans (I’m looking at you Battlestar Galactica), SyFy’s opening of the Sci Fi Club in ZooKazoo is the network’s first strategic move into a youth market.  And as the old saying goes, “There’s proof in the pudding”, Sci Fi has recently acquired big gun Alan Seiffert to fill the role of Senior Vice President at Sci Fi Ventures.  Seiffert is currently in the role of SVP of business development and partnerships for CNBC Asia Pacific in Singapore, and will assume his new position beginning in May with Sci Fi Ventures.

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Tags: acclaim games, battlestar galactica, entertainment destinations, gaming space, lifestyle brand, media businesses, online games, sci fi club, sci fi fans, science fiction fans, virtual world

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