Volley Scores Exclusive License for Jeopardy and All Sony Pictures Television Voice Games

Voice game developer Volley has acquired exclusive licensing rights to “Jeopardy!” and the entire Sony Pictures Television stable of voice games for an undisclosed sum. The list includes TV show-based games like “Wheel of Fortune”, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”, and “Pyramid.” and comes on the heels of Volley’s multi-million purchase of ‘Question of the Day’ creator Matchbox.io last month.

Volley Voices Sony

“Jeopardy! is already popular, as is Millionaire, and we’re excited to widen the audience for them and the other games,” Volley CEO Max Child told Voicebot in an interview.

The deal ups the number of people playing Volley’s games into the tens of millions and makes the startup the largest developer of voice games, according to the company. Volley’s efforts in the six years since it launched the hit Song Quiz voice game reflect that vision of voice game ascendency. That’s especially true for licensed games, as Volley already counted “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” and “The Price Is Right,” among its voice games through partnerships with the respective producers of those TV shows. All four of the games are playable with Alexa, and “Jeopardy!” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” are also accessible with Google Assistant.

“At SPT, we’ve been invested in building voice games from the beginning,” SOT executive vice president for game shows Suzanne Prete said in a statement. “Over the years, through Amazon Alexa and other platforms, our games have reached millions of people. Now we’re excited to work with Volley to hit even greater scale.”

Volley’s Volume

Volley’s collection of voice games also includes a few original titles, including those picked up from Matchbox and those added last year when it acquired game studio Voxion and its smartphone-connection tech. Volley’s games are all voice-based, but several offer multi-modal interactions through smart display screens. Volley published the Google Assistant puzzle game Magic Word last year, which combines audio and visual clues like GIFs and music. The Sony games have their own optional visuals too for those playing on devices with a screen.

“Trivia is an obvious winner for voice games, but we’re exploring a lot of opportunities in voice games,” Child said. “We’re thinking about more screen-driven games along with more games that make sense on voice platforms. “Voice is a major market for gaming and it’s on the rise.”

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