AOL hosted its premiere First Look line-up meeting today, announcing a roll out of new entertainment content starting this summer. AOL is hoping that by creating more content through their site they'll be able to create advertising niches for targeted consumers.
Here's a preview of what to expect from the ISP/Web Goliath:
First up is a Shrek The Third online video game. Ye Olde Shrek the Third Royal Tournament launches on April 26, three weeks before the movie hits theaters. The game, co-produced by AOL, Dreamworks Animation, and Mark Burnett Productions (of Survivor), will last six weeks. Each day, new challenges and areas will open up, with a total of 25 games to be released over the course of the Tournament. The final winner will win a family trip to Hollywood.
Next up is the second "season" of Gold Rush, an online game also co-produced by Burnett Productions, where players compete daily in pop culture trivia games. Each weekday for seven weeks there will be three new challenges, followed by a prize round. Finalists will face off in a real-life treasure hunt in Hollywood for a million dollars in gold. AOL demonstrated just how the game works by bringing Mario Lopez to the event as host to an impromptu Gold Rush game. The demonstration was complete with a "stranger" brought up from the Time Warner shopping center to play. She had a few too many one-liners to sell me on her stranger status and the demonstration didn't sell me on the game either.
AOL's teaming up with Ellen for the fifth season of The Ellen Degeneres Show this fall. Their online program will invite Americans to share photos, videos, and stories about their hometowns, which Ellen will then select to feature on a reacurring segment on the show. She'll then pick the most convincing town to visit.
In the first half of 2008, AOL will debut its latest game Million Dollar Bill (dolla, dolla bills y'all!). Hosted by *Dancing With the Stars *recently departed Leeza Gibbons, the show will feature a series of games that if you beat will reveal serial numbers from real, circulating dollar bills. If you have the Washington that matches you win one million dollars (go ahead, put your pinky to the corner of your mouth). Each day there will be new games to finish in order to reveal the serials. If your dollar only matches some of the numbers it doesn't mean you're a loser (unless it's Friday night), as even partial number matches can get you prizes. Top players will compete in 90-second video segments airing on network TV and online.
Last but not least is iLand. Premiering on AOL in the spring of '08, this game could get you your own private island. The competition, co-produced by Deal or No Deal, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and *Fear Factor *production company Endemol USA, starts in front of your computer and ends on a deserted paradise. It all revolves around creating a solid online social network, before you have to create an alliance on the beach. You start the game by creating an online profile and playing some games. Win enough challenges and you could be sent to a remote tropical island with only a laptop, wireless access, and help from your online friends. The online audience decides who will join you and what to give you -- supplies (useful or not) and advice (helpful or not). As the island community grows, the audience picks their top iLanders to compete in an ultimate challenge to to win the island.
With Survivor and Amazing Race still getting strong numbers and social networks like MySpace and Facebook still holding onto their popularity, iLand could be a an actual winner for AOL. I wish they spent the time and energy their using on the rest of this garbage on this game to really make it interesting.
