Play to Win
T-Mobile and Vodafone offer gamers the chance to win big, but is there a hidden cost?
If wiling away the hours playing an enjoyable game isn’t lure enough to get you pocket gaming, T-Mobile and Vodafone customers now have the opportunity to win prizes while they play. The PrizePlay gaming service, run by Sennari Entertainment and currently exclusive to those two networks in the UK, enables gamers to purchase PrizePlay-enabled games and rack up points which can be traded for real-world prizes.
With eight titles currently available, including PrizePlay Monopoly, PrizePlay Snakes and Ladders, PrizePlay Triple Towers and PrizePlay Goldenballs (can you spot a theme emerging, readers?), the games run on a pay-per-play basis.
You still need to buy the game in the first place (and prices have yet to be revealed) but you do get six free plays. You’ll have to pay to play more, though, with the cost of each individual occasion you play the game being added to your monthly bill or deducted from your pre-pay account.
The pay-off comes in the form of PrizePlay Bling. Any points that you score in the games are converted into PrizePlay Bling and are saved in your own personal PrizePlay account. Once you’ve saved up enough Bling you can go online to www.prizeplay.net and exchange it for everything from phone wallpapers to WH Smith gift vouchers to snow boarding lessons.
We can’t work out yet how much money you’ll need to spend playing each game to build up a enough Bling with which to buy anything exciting, though, so make sure you do your maths first! We’ll keep you updated with any developments as and when they appear…