Munich/Zurich . The BMW Group and AirConsole are launching a competition to develop games tailored to the in-car experience. With this competition, the two companies are tapping into the potential of the global game developer community while developers are invited to pioneer the field of in-car gaming. The BMW Group and AirConsole will jointly promote the competition at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco (March 20-24, 2023).
Developers can submit their ideas and concepts as of today and until June 8th, 2023, via the official competition website. Among the submitted game concepts, the best four will be chosen as winners and will each receive 5,000 euros for the development of a prototype. If the prototype proves promising, AirConsole will fully fund the development of the game to then be included on the AirConsole platform. The winners are also invited to the BMW Group headquarters in Munich to see the result in action.
Stefan Butz, Vice President BMW Group Development for Entertainment and Apps: “This competition is a great opportunity for game developers to work with AirConsole to create engaging gaming experiences specifically for vehicles. We want to offer our customers a first-class entertainment experience and gaming is all about joy.”
Antti Makkonen, Director of Games at AirConsole, said, “As highlighted by the automotive industry at CES, gaming in the car is happening. Game makers need to start creating games for the car use-case, not just bring games to the car. Using phones as controllers inside the car makes playing accessible and fun for everyone, especially when considering that not everybody will own a game controller, or that playing directly on the car touch screen makes your arm tire quite fast.”
The BMW Group chose nDream – the company behind the AirConsole brand – as a partner to bring casual gaming into the car through the BMW Startup Garage programme.