ACCESS Europe GmbH has announced that it has partnered with N-Dream AG to bring its cloud-gaming platform, AirConsole, to the car. The partnership will see ACCESS Europe enable the availability of multiplayer gaming through its In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) platform, ACCESS Twine for Car (Twine4Car) and its car-centric App Store.
Since its inception in 2015, Zurich-based AirConsole has gained over 9 million players in 190+ countries, partnered with Xiaomi and Atari and made world-wide popular games accessible through its cloud console. AirConsole and its community of over 7,000 developers continue to expand the company’s impressive library of different titles – including racing, jump’n’run, strategy, ego shooters and adventure – and to now deliver these to cars around the world with ACCESS.
“Now more than ever, people want to bring their digital lives into the car so that they can enjoy all the services they want wherever they are. The shift to an always-connected, consumer-centric product is happening in automotive now, and new services such as games represent a great way to enable this as a superior integrated OEM user experience. We are very happy to have found the perfect partner with N-Dream to bring exciting and fun cloud games to the car with their innovative smart controller concept – which makes it an ideal in-vehicle and RSE proposition,” said ACCESS Europe global product director Sven Eckoldt.
AirConsole integrated to the Twine4Car in-car platform provides an entertainment system to play games on any screen in the vehicle and turns the smartphone into a game controller. Via the cloud-based solution, automotive OEMs can deliver an immersed and fun gaming experience to all passengers, whether it is the kids sitting in the back seat or adults in the front waiting for their electric vehicle to charge.
N-Dream AG COO and strategic partnership development Anthony Cliquot, said: “There were 2.69 billion video game players worldwide in 2020 – a figure that is expected to grow 5.6per cent YoY – and the growing popularity of gaming means the car is primed to become an extension of our homes. ACCESS and N-Dream lead the way in this transition by redefining what the in-car lifestyle will look like and offering car users new gaming experiences. The integration of our unique cloud-gaming solution adds another dimension to ACCESS Europe’s Twine4Car platform – be it for the head-unit or RSE.”
Twine4Car provides automotive OEMs with a white label full circle IVI entertainment service on the car head unit and rear-seat entertainment screens and partners with multiple content service provider’s to enable everything from movies to news, live TV, sports, kids content and now games in the car. ACCESS reduces complexity for OEMs by aggregating content around the globe and delivering apps and services via a single customisable technical platform. The IVI platform supports automotive OEMs in creating their own fully branded and flexible HMI multi-screen in-car user experiences that facilitate driver and passenger consumption of media services and helps to establish new business models that they control in a single solution.
“The importance of content in the connected car is growing and OEMs know in-car entertainment experiences will play a key role in how car brands are perceived in the future. Through Twine4Car, ACCESS Europe is supporting automotive manufacturers by helping them to realise their vision of offering highly differentiated services suited to their brand and strategy that consumers love,” concluded ACCESS Europe CEO Dr Neale Foster.
