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If certain video and computer games are proving to have better stories, characters and production design than a lot of movies and TV shows, then the Sci Fi Channel’s latest announcement subscribes to the Don Corleone theory of business: keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The channel is joining with gaming company Trion to develop something that’s both a TV show and an online game. The as-yet-untitled show is expected to premiere on your TV and PC in 2010.

There have been many movie and TV-based games but the consensus among gamers is that most of them have sucked. And movies or TV shows based on video games have generally suffered the same fate (see Boll, Uwe.) But Sci Fi Channel officials are quoted as saying that their writers will work side-by-side with gaming designers from day one in the hopes of achieving what many industry observers have hoped would be the next chapter in interactive entertainment. As Sam Howe, Sci Fi Channel president, told the L.A. Times:

“A television show that is on once a week isn’t enough. The fans today want the experience to go beyond that...for example, we can tell them that there will be an alien invasion at a certain place in the game, at a certain time, and to be there with all their friends and be ready. The outcome depends on them. And then that battle will be part of the universe in the show.”

The coverage of the announcement places the forthcoming online game squarely in the sights of current massive multi-player behemoth World of Warcraft. Sci Fi Channel officials can only hope to have a fraction of WOW’s popularity because that would mean access to any user communities that develop and the subsequent advertising revenues and cross-promotional/marketing opportunities. Cashing in on all that would be a network executive’s real-world version of Capture The Flag.

Read [L.A. Times] Read [Silicon Alley Insider]

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