14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has officially announced that on November 19, it will launch the second season of the 1 vs. 100 quiz game on the Xbox Live service. The company hopes that the popular social title, coupled with the introduction of Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter to the Xbox 360 console, will attract more casual players to the device, who will then discover the powerful game library it possesses and provide new revenue streams.
The software giant initially launched 1 vs. 100 as a sort of beta, which was available for about 13 weeks for those who subscribed to Xbox Live Gold.
Reports suggested that the proper launch season of the game would come with a price tag attached but Microsoft seems to be determined at the moment to maintain an advertising backed model, with companies like Sprint and Honda already signed up to feature during the commercial breaks. The game model depends on massive player presence, and at the peak of the first season, no less than 114,000 people were present to play 1 vs. 100.
In the game, players are selected randomly to be The One or part of the Mob. based on the answers they give to trivia questions they can win cash prizes. Those who are not picked, meaning the vast majority of players, can still answer questions together with them and are ranked according to the speed and accuracy of their answers. The final rankings are taken into account for the next round and seem to influence the choices for The One and the Mob.
1 vs. 100 has different presenters in North America, in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Microsoft is saying that it plans to add new questions to the game on a regular basis in order to keep it fresh and will also try to expand the experience to be more like the TV show it is based on.