The waiting has come to an end – the Ski Challenge 09 season is officially open!
On 9th December Ski Challenge 09 got underway and therefore kicked off this year’s challenge boom. In addition to the 8 fixed media partners – ORF (Austria), Pro7, Sat.1 (Germany), SF (Switzerland), 24sata (Croatia), Zurnal (Slovenia) and NRK (Norway)– further countries will be added to the line-up throughout the season. Last season 3.3 million active players were drawn in, 300 races were completed and 14 billion ad-impressions were recorded. Between 3.5 and 4 million gamers worldwide are expected for the new campaign. For the first time the mobile version of the game will be available in up to four countries in addition to the PC version.
Alongside the improvements and revisions there are a number of new features. The run from Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been added to the tracks already available. Another new feature is the online World Cup – the run in Val d’Isere will be on offer as its own competition parallel to the actual World Cup run, including its own World Cup ranking. Building on last year there are a number of improvements for the game. Some of the runs have been extended (Gröden) and adapted to match the World Cup runs (Val d’Isere). The GUI (Graphical User Interface), graphic effects and sound have also been tweaked. The video and training mode have been adapted allowing gamers to start from the checkpoints, allowing them to practise specific stretches of the runs. For the first time this season, Ski Challenge can be played in a web browser, further increasing the game’s user-friendliness. This also means that the usual web-based functions will be better linked to the game itself.
The most interesting of the additions is the so-called ‘Battlemail’ feature. This enables players to invite others to a private tournament with its own conditions. Invited gamers will be informed about the ‘battle’ by e-mail and will be led directly to the Battle Mode via a community ActiveX component.
Find out more about the new season, including the new features and hints and tips at www.ski-challenge.com