Interactivity To Connect 'Defiance' Online Game With Companion Syfy Original Series

Typically, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is only big TV news to those who could tell you without checking a cable guide when the next showing of “Campus P.D.” is on G4 or the exact angle and curvature of Olivia Munn’s left nostril.

But exactly do you say when an upcoming game is also set to join Syfy’s viewing lineup?

This year’s version of the annual video game expo also marks the debut of “Defiance,” a massively multi-player (that’s MMO, in gamer parlance) shooter that’s soon available across multiple gaming platforms, and will also soon become one of Syfy’s newest epic original series.

The game itself is set on a future Earth where aliens and humans co-exist after decades of fighting. The goal of the concept is to have events on the show impact game-play in the online world. Conversely, events taking place in the online world of the game will impact or hint at the ongoing arc on the show. The show will be penned by sci-fi TV writer Rockne S. O’Bannon, best known for his work on “Warehouse 13,” “Alien Nation,” “seaQuest DSV,” and “Farscape.” The game is developed by Trion Worlds, which also developed the recent commercial success “RIFT.”

It’s an interesting concept, but one that strikes as a bit of a gamble. This is putting a lot of eggs in a basket with a historically weak bottom. If this concept is to be the raving success that Syfy and Trion Worlds must believe it could be, then it all hinges upon succeeding at two things few have ever done well: successfully adapting a video game into a TV show, and a TV show into a quality game.

To make matters even trickier, for this to really take off, both risky propositions would have to be fairly successful at once.