BMW is partnering with AirConsole to bring a collection of single and multiplayer games to make your car an immersive experience.
In today’s generation, the opportunity to play games in the car is restricted to your phone’s variety of data-munching games and Rubik’s cubes that you can’t solve, but by next year you may be able to play an impressive lineup of games directly on your dashboard.
On October 11th, 2022, BMW and Airconsole announced their partnership that will bring the casual gaming experience of consoles and phones into the car with you starting next year in 2023. Drivers and passengers will have access to a variety of single-player and multiplayer games through AirConsole, a video gaming platform with over 180 titles and a player base of 10 million, with the goal of “making any waiting scenario in the car an exciting experience.”
How does this concept work? The company AirConsole has modified its features to integrate with BMW’s iDrive Curved Display, which runs the games inside the car’s entertainment system and allows users to operate them with their cellphones by scanning a QR code. Obviously, this system would be quite dangerous if the car were in perpetual motion, which is why it’s presumably restricted to operating only when the vehicle has been parked completely.
Stephan Durach, senior vice-president of BMW Group’s connected company development, added: “With AirConsole, we will make use of cutting-edge technologies along with a wide range of entertaining and multiplayer games. By doing this, every waiting situation inside the car will be fun.
This year, AirConsole additionally worked with Ludium Lab to develop the Sora Stream, a system that allows players to emulate conventional console gaming by using their smartphone as a controller, akin to the technology used in the AirConsole and BMW collaboration. More than 10,000 developers from around the world have worked with the company to co-create 200 games that employ this technology and have been played by more than 15 million players so far.
Anthony Cliquot, CEO of AirConsole developer N-Dream, added: “We are extremely proud to spearhead gaming inside vehicles with BMW and are excited to create new games for in-car entertainment. Our ingenious architecture, coupled with the ease of access of our platform, will change the way people get entertained in their vehicles.”
No one likes being the person who has to wait in the car, but with this exciting new prospect, it’ll be a position to fight over. Either way, I’m excited to see how BMW and Airconsole develop this idea and hope to see it soon.
