Playing Lost and Desperate

ABC Entertainment is taking the mobile promotion of its hit TV shows “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” beyond the wallpapers, film clips and mobisodes it launched last year to create the first mobile games based on TV shows. Developer Gameloft has agreed to publish the titles early next year.

“Both ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ have loyal and dedicated fans, and we are excited to be able to bring them more ways to interact with their favorite shows and characters,” said Bruce Gersh, senior vice president of business development for ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television, in a statement.

“Lost” is a suspense-drama about castaways stranded on a mysterious island after a plane crash. While the TV show deals with the actions and past lives of the main characters, ABC launched an innovative mobisode series last year, which detailed the story lines and histories of minor on-screen carriers, creating what is essentially a parallel on-phone series for hardcore “Lost” fans. “Desperate Housewives” has not yet received its own mobisode, but ABC has been actively marketing the program through other forms of mobile content and delivers recaps of the main TV program to mobile TV services.

Specifically tailored mobile games, however, would add another marketing and promotional weapon to ABC’s growing arsenal with the aim of driving more viewers to the TV broadcasts themselves. Entertainment companies have already begun investing heavily in mobile games as ways of either promoting or adding merchandizing dollars to film releases. This summer, Disney Mobile launched its new “Pirates of the Caribbean” multi-player mobile game concurrently with the launch of its latest “Pirates” movie. In the gaming world, many game publishers are releasing mobile versions of popular titles concurrently with the release of their console and PC equivalents.

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