Expanding on its recently renewed strategy to offer games on the set-top box, Comcast has recently integrated Jackbox Games with its X1 platform.
Jackbox Games, which started to appear on X1 earlier this month, offers packages of multiplayer, party-style games. Early on, Comcast is selling two such packages – Jackbox Party Pack 3 and Jackbox Party Pack 4 – for $24.99 each.
Individual games in those packages, such as Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party, Fakin’ It, Fibbage and Survive the Internet, are streamed over the internet to X1 set-top boxes. Players connect to the game and play along with their laptop, smartphone or tablet by visiting http://jackbox.tv and entering a custom game code that is displayed on the TV.
According to Comcast’s FAQ about the Jackbox Games integration, customers can access the app from the X1 apps menu or saying “Jackbox Games” into their X1 voice remotes. Purchases of Jackbox Games will show up on the customer’s Comcast cable bill. Because Jackbox Games is an OTT app, it is subject to Comcast’s internet data usage policies.
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The X1 integration offers Jackbox Games another sales outlet, complementing its reach on several other TV-connected platforms, including Xbox One and PlayStation gaming consoles, Fire TV boxes, web browsers, Android TV devices, Apple TV (fourth gen) boxes and the Nintendo Switch, among others. Jackbox Games is best known as the company behind the You Don’t Know Jack franchise.
The addition of Jackbox Games also expands Comcast’s renewed exploration of gaming on X1 set-top boxes, following the recent addition of several free, casual games through a partnership with Transgaming, and the availability of an episodic, interactive game called The Walking Dead from Telltale Games.
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Those recent gaming additions arrive almost two years after Comcast and Electronic Arts closed down a free beta offering that streamed EA games to X1 boxes and enabled customers to control the games with tablets and smartphones.
Comcast ended Q3 2017 with about 57% of its residential video subscriber base on X1.
