Ski Challenge 10 has launched
For the sixth consecutive season Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions GmbH, developers of Ski Challenge and leading provider of free-to-download 3D games, launched the virtual ski event for its Austrian media partner ORF on 24th November 2009. Further licence partners from other European countries, including Germany, Slovenia, Croatia and Norway, will follow. Ski Challenge represented what was the beginning for Greentube who went on to develop and release a portfolio of successful 3D sport games, such as Football Challenge and Mountain Bike Challenge, which are now followed by a fan community numbering in excess of nine million gamers from around the world. In summer 2009 Greentube developed a similar format for Porsche Austria, with the release of the VW Polo Cup (www.polocup.at).
Ski Challenge 10 introduces two brand-new runs to the well-known line-up already available. The first is Beaver Creek, Colorado, USA, while the second will be revealed along with a range of technical improvements at www.ski-challenge.comand on the sites of its partners. Further highlights include general upgrades concerning the performance of the game and its user-friendliness. Ski Challenge will also be available to MAC users for the first time ever. As has been the case in previous years, Ski Challenge 2010 can be downloaded to mobile devices. Mobilkom and Swisscom are cooperation partners, and an iPhone version has been developed for the latter.
Last season an astounding 260 million online runs were registered. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the loyal fan base, which has grown to six million gamers, Ski Challenge has become the world’s biggest ski race since its humble debut in 2005. Ski Challenge was the first of what became a succession of 3D sport games, including last summer’s hit for Volkswagen, from the successful company located in Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna’s 6th district. A dedicated team of more than 90 employees at Greentube has developed six 3D games in 13 languages for more than 30 Business-to-Business customers (primarily TV broadcasters such as Pro7, France Television, BBC, NRK, CBC in Canada and Canal+) in Europe to date.
As is the case with all of the company’s 3D games, Ski Challenge is financed not only by large static campaigns, but also by a dynamic In-Game Advertising model, which allows the booking of advertising on the basis of national prices per thousand contacts. “This internationally leading advertising model used in our 3D sport games was developed by our own expert team here in Vienna,” says Greentube CEO DI Eberhard Dürrschmid. “Booking can be carried out via a web interface; the system works with local market prices and is dependent on purchasing power. Campaigns smaller in scale as well as limited in duration can also be booked.” Accompanying studies on the effectiveness of the advertising are continuously carried out in cooperation with international partners (such as the Europäischen Sponsoring-Börse). A collection of household names are among the companies advertised in Greentube’s games, including Siemens, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Raiffeisen, Mobilkom, Tipp3, Uniqa, Red Bull, Nokia, Adidas, Swisscom, Telenor and UPC.