Genvid interview: The emerging genre of massive interactive live events (MILEs)

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Genvid Technologies used its cloud technology to pioneer the massive interactive live events (MILEs) as a new genre in games. It’s a novel concept where spectators can join in the fun, changing the course of narrative events as they play out in a grand fashion.

And that potential was enough to lure some veterans of gaming. Andrew Schneider, former head of game startup Live Gamer, recently joined as president of Genvid Entertainment, a game publishing arm of Genvid Technologies. And Jerry Heinz joined as executive vice president of global publishing platforms for Genvid Entertainment.

Genvid Entertainment and Skybound Entertainment have announced The Walking Dead: Last Mile, a new interactive spectator game coming to Facebook/Meta. Pipeworks Studios will develop the game. That game is a follow-up to Pac-Man Community, a multiplayer game with user-generated content, on Facebook. And before that, Genvid launched Rival Peak, a MILE where the audience got to vote what happened with a dozen AI-based characters in a Survivor-like outdoor adventure game.

These MILEs are games where fans can participate in the part game, part interactive television show. I talked about how the concept of the MILE lured both Schneider and Heinz to join Genvid, which is led by CEO Jacob Navok.

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Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

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