WildTangent unveils 'PC game console' Orb, Sierra and THQ pledge support

In an interview with Joystiq, St. John explained how the cost per play session will depend on the game, but that it would be priced "fairly" based on statistics they derive in testing. That said, he presumes most will opt for the advertiser route. (In their casual portal, he said, 98% of the users opt for watching advertisements and playing for free.)
Games can be queued up for download in the background, but there's also an option for taking the games you want to play and having them sent to you for the cost of burning the DVD and shipping. The program will be offered in eight languages, including Chinese and Korean. No community features will included at launch, but St. John said he'd consider it in the future. It's a shame, too, because we think it's a key reason that programs like Steam and GameTap thrive.
The developer version will launch this week, with a consumer version poised for tomorrow. For users of the current WildTangent portal, which largely consists of what St. John calls casual gamers, they will be offered the client free for download when it launches. Orb will also be packaged with Dell and HP computers. Orb will be officially unveiled during a session tomorrow at GDC. We'll have more from our interview with St. John later this week.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BANDIT @ Feb 20th 2008 12:06AM
Does anyone else remember the "Phantom" game console? I cant have my heartbroken again... Although I now hear its the release platform for Duke Nuken Forever...
PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 20th 2008 12:53AM
i still want that lapboard.....
a wireless version of that for my PS3? heaven.
Zeus.:God @ Feb 20th 2008 2:21AM
Gotta' admit, that would be kick ass, Killa.
I remember when I first read about the Phantom in 2001/2. At the time the specs were out of this world for a game console...
Boostjunkie @ Feb 20th 2008 12:09AM
This isn't a game console, do please even read before they post. Anyway, isn't wildtangent the site that puts a whole bunch of spyware on your machine to play free games?
Trev @ Feb 20th 2008 11:10AM
I was just thinking the same thing.
I can't wait for data-miner dig dug. /sarcasm
GoldenS1104 @ Feb 20th 2008 12:10AM
Does anyone else remember when WildTangent made those games that you downloaded with AIM that would put spyware on your computer? Yeah, they are a bunch of b*tches.
StrangeBum @ Feb 20th 2008 12:16AM
I pretty much gave up on them after that point. Although they aren't doing so bad lately apparently. I would take Steam over this any day easily.
Mr.ESC @ Feb 20th 2008 2:12AM
I used to play Cannonballs. It had a funky theme song and insulting people in the chat was also entertaining.
I never paid for it I only used the trial since the full game wasn't bad but I didn't feel like paying for it, it wasn’t that great either.
Anyway I was forced to download a Wild tangent program that opened pop ups and stuff, it made my computer very freaking slow and Imesh (back when it wasn’t controlled by the party van) didn't help either.
PointyThings @ Feb 20th 2008 12:13AM
Let's hope it isn't haunted by any Phantoms...
mykie @ Feb 20th 2008 12:22AM
Alex St. John was one of the original inventors of DirectX for Windows.
Unfortunately, the Wild Tangent Web Driver followed his departure from the empire (and as noted here) the spyware.
iofthestorm @ Feb 20th 2008 12:32AM
Yeah, Alex St. John would have been a cool person until he founded WildTangent and its crapload of spyware that came preinstalled on many computers a little while back. I still wonder why anyone so obviously talented would do something so stupid...
GhostBox @ Feb 20th 2008 12:28AM
Oh no, not again.
Syn @ Feb 20th 2008 12:34AM
Spyware to the MAX!
Oh how I love you.. Just die Wild Tangent. Your games are failures anyways.
KeenCommander @ Feb 20th 2008 12:44AM
The only potential in this is for someone to hack it wide open and make it a portal for piracy. Other than that it's just a new method for WildTangent to deploy malware.
mykie @ Feb 20th 2008 12:52AM
RealArcade's been hacked wide open, and it's still in operation, still easily hackable, even after all these years.
John @ Feb 26th 2008 11:47PM
What malware would that be, specifically? I'd love to know.
A friend of mine has been there since WT's early days, and he's shared with me virtually everything the company has ever done, and nothing is even remotely related to malware/spyware.
Anticrawl @ Feb 20th 2008 1:46AM
As many have stated Wild Tangent is the devil. I will not be giving any of my money to a company that data mines or uses any type of malacious code.
t_m @ Feb 20th 2008 1:59AM
WildTanget seem to have mended their ways.. but their reputation is pretty bad, so its gonna be hard for a lot of people to trust them.
(Then again, they probably don't care, as most people probably don't know about them).
Am I misreading the 360/PS3 part? I don't get how they are gonna put games from those systems onto the PC.
John @ Feb 26th 2008 11:34PM
Yeah, you're right...this may be a typo by Joystiq. Only PC games will be distributed by this thing according to my friend who works for WT.
Was probably a sales pitch by the big wigs that got misinterpreted.
umm....hello??? @ Feb 20th 2008 2:00AM
yeah, screw WT. if I want to pay for DL game service, XBLA already does that (boo on DRM though)...
brandon_r87 @ Feb 20th 2008 2:00AM
One more piece of software for Dell and HP buyers to uninstall to get a clean system.
Mr.ESC @ Feb 20th 2008 2:06AM
So this is going to act like "Bleem" or something or is just like gametap?
Vegan @ Feb 20th 2008 3:23AM
WildTangent is a spyware company and should not be encouraged in any endeavor. They should all die horrible, horrible deaths.
ThornedVenom (Ludwig Defense Force) @ Feb 20th 2008 3:29AM
I'd really dig playing 360/PS3 games legally on my computer by watching ads, and for free.
But I cannot forgive them for the past spyware damage they had caused.
They killed my first love. =( Brave lil' PC.
Ranus Studios @ Feb 20th 2008 4:03AM
WildTangent always looked like spyware to me.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Feb 20th 2008 6:59AM
We already have pay-per-plays. They're called rentals.
Well, OK... pay-per-days. The last time I did pay-per-play was in the arcades, and I remember that costing me a ton of cash. No thanks, SpyMaster.
James @ Feb 20th 2008 7:25AM
A local computer shop around my way used to build "console" PCs. basically just mini shuttle computers with their own external cases and a front end "Front Row" style launcher for games and apps. It was pretty nifty. Way before Media Centres hit the market (it had an S-Video output, eek).
Organic_Shadow @ Feb 20th 2008 10:06AM
Apparently im the CEO of WildTangent now. *le sigh*
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Feb 20th 2008 10:51AM
WyldTangent?
DO NOT WANT
dave smith @ Feb 20th 2008 11:09AM
Oh great... more Wild Tangent crapware I'll have to spend hours uninstalling from all my company PC's after I block their URL on the firewall.
John @ Feb 26th 2008 11:45PM
Why on earth are you not cloning drives? Pre-installed software aside, it'd save you hundreds of hours of work per year. That, or buy business PCs which come clean (at least from the places we've ordered them).
Sounds to me like you need to get a job a company where the IT folks actually have a clue.
Mo Ojal @ Feb 20th 2008 12:28PM
I didn't trust them at first, but I got over it after reading more about what they do now. I like the Risk game and the Penguins game the most.
Rocketboy @ Feb 20th 2008 1:59PM
Orb? I bet the file streaming company, Orb, might have something to say about their choice of name.
CrazySteve88 @ Feb 21st 2008 6:11AM
You guys do know that WT has no spyware anymore? Even still the spyware that was installed before didn't do enough harm to break your computer. So it showed a few pop ups when you had the drivers running, boo hoo...
So it reported what your computer was... boo hoo... did it steal your credit card information? social security information? do anything so you couldn't uninstall the spyware by simply uninstalling WT? exactly...
I like the idea but I agree, the media streaming software known as Orb might have something to say against this.
John @ Feb 26th 2008 11:22PM
I agree with the previous poster.
A friend of mine who has worked there for the past several years has given me the complete rundown of their software, and I can say that it's definitely NOT spyware/malware/etc. XBox Live tracks more data than they do, plus WT does it anonymously. And if you hate pre-installed apps, stop complaining and build your own rig.
As for their current business, I personally really like it. Why pay 20 bucks for indie/casual games when you can pop in a few tokens and play a game for as long as you want for a dollar, or for free from a sponsor?
I know there were some installation issues in the past with the Web Driver (which no longer exists, by the way), but I don't understand where all these accusations are coming from. I admit that I'm a bit biased since a bud of mine works there, but still...this is just silly.