Photo: BMW
It's been a while since German carmaker BMW first announced its partnership with AirConsole, but the world has finally got a first glimpse of what it'll be like to drive, but also enjoy in other ways, the BMW and MINI vehicles of the future.
At the end of last year BMW said it got in bed with one of the world's largest game streaming and cloud platforms. AirConsole was born in 2015 and at the time of writing is offering close to 200 games from various genres that can be played on a variety of devices.
BMW's push to gamify its vehicles is not a surprise, given how the rise of electric vehicles is slowly creating a need for solutions that'll keep drivers and passengers from being bored to death while waiting for their cars to recharge.
As announced earlier in 2023, upcoming Bimmers will run on their center displays AirConsole cloud-hosted and supplied games, which will be controllable by means of smartphones.
A taste of how that will look and feel is provided by BMW this week, during the Gamescom event taking place in Cologne, Germany. It is there where a specially prepped BMW i5 is being shown as a preview of things to come.
Linked to AirConsole, this particular i5 offers access to a variety of games, not that complex in nature but more than enough to ensure a more delightful passage of time. The games on offer, although not disclosed, are part of the racing, sports, sim, strategy, jump-and-run, and puzzle genres.
The two companies took advantage of their presence at Gamescom to officially announce that starting next year a version of one of the world's most popular quiz games, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," will be available inside BMW cars, bringing to the table a new kind of enjoyment for drivers and passengers.
The AirConsole variant of the game is the first to be developed for in-car use, and it's still a work in progress. Its arrival comes as a result of BMW's earlier calls to developers to come up with games specifically tailored for use in vehicles, as none of the existing ones have been designed with such an environment in mind.
As for the i5 meant to showcase all of this to gamers, the way the car looks sounds amazing, but it remains a total mystery, as BMW shared no image of it. The Germans do tell us the exterior of the car was wrapped in special gaming-related colors, with a throwback to the era of 8-bit computer games. It features elements from the various games AirConsole is offering, but also elements of video game controllers.
If you plan on experiencing the car yourself, Gamescom is open from Wednesday, August 23 to Sunday, August 27.
BMW's push to gamify its vehicles is not a surprise, given how the rise of electric vehicles is slowly creating a need for solutions that'll keep drivers and passengers from being bored to death while waiting for their cars to recharge.
As announced earlier in 2023, upcoming Bimmers will run on their center displays AirConsole cloud-hosted and supplied games, which will be controllable by means of smartphones.
A taste of how that will look and feel is provided by BMW this week, during the Gamescom event taking place in Cologne, Germany. It is there where a specially prepped BMW i5 is being shown as a preview of things to come.
Linked to AirConsole, this particular i5 offers access to a variety of games, not that complex in nature but more than enough to ensure a more delightful passage of time. The games on offer, although not disclosed, are part of the racing, sports, sim, strategy, jump-and-run, and puzzle genres.
The two companies took advantage of their presence at Gamescom to officially announce that starting next year a version of one of the world's most popular quiz games, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," will be available inside BMW cars, bringing to the table a new kind of enjoyment for drivers and passengers.
The AirConsole variant of the game is the first to be developed for in-car use, and it's still a work in progress. Its arrival comes as a result of BMW's earlier calls to developers to come up with games specifically tailored for use in vehicles, as none of the existing ones have been designed with such an environment in mind.
As for the i5 meant to showcase all of this to gamers, the way the car looks sounds amazing, but it remains a total mystery, as BMW shared no image of it. The Germans do tell us the exterior of the car was wrapped in special gaming-related colors, with a throwback to the era of 8-bit computer games. It features elements from the various games AirConsole is offering, but also elements of video game controllers.
If you plan on experiencing the car yourself, Gamescom is open from Wednesday, August 23 to Sunday, August 27.
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