Abandon, Tidex pact for tech rights
Move allows AIG to launch Init Flix
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition now gives Gotham-based Abandon, the online arm of Abandon Entertainment, the proprietary technology to launch Init Flix and Init Games in the coming months.
Through Init Flix, Abandon will create a series of interactive Webisodes that enable viewers to roam around a streamed video's 360-degree environment and decide the story's direction.
The interactive properties, made up of up to 15 Webisodes each, will be syndicated to other Web sites beginning in the fall.
Online game developer and Abandon subsid Mythic Entertainment will help develop Init Games, a series of multiplayer games in which computer-generated characters move around live-action filmed landscapes. Mythic has developed online games based on the pics "Starship Troopers" and "Independence Day."
Abandon CEO and prexy Marcus Ticotin said that Living Video will first be used for interactive advertisements, enabling corporate Web sites to give visitors the chance to tour a car or experience a virtual makeover, for example.
Tel Aviv-based Tidex Systems is a software and technology company headed by Shmuel Banitt. Entertec reps the firm's entertainment endeavors.
Abandon Entertainment recently produced Sundance entry "Scotland, PA," starring Maura Tierney and Christopher Walken.
