Freeview to offer built-in PC games?

t5 labs and partner IBM are to launch a new service in the UK offering households PC games via their existing terrestrial set-top box.

The system would work in the same way as video on demand, with customers paying either a pay-per-play or "any game, any time" subscription, to gain access to titles such as Electronic Arts' Need for Speed.

Speaking to GamesIndustry, t5 labs founder and CEO Graham Clemie said that he hopes the system will appeal to a new, non-gaming audience: "For those gamers who are less hardcore, and maybe prefer the comfort of sitting in their living room to play games, who are fed up with having to buy all the different games consoles, and upgrade all the time, and go out and buy the games – and of course some games cost £40 – this will be for them.

"It will also appeal to lapsed gamers, people who may have been gamers when they were younger, and now they've kind of lost contact with that world of buying consoles, and it doesn't quite fit in to their lifestyle anymore."

On the type of PC games the firm plans to offer, Clemie added: "Anything's fine as long as it's compatible with the input device – I think we'd have to have a standard game controller, I don't see people having a keyboard and mouse in their living room."

Although no details of a launch date has yet been announced, games developers are already keen to get on board. CEO of developer Blitz Games, Phillip Oliver, said: "When I heard what t5 labs was offering I was understandably sceptical, but on learning more I became incredibly excited by the potential of this technology to revolutionise and broaden the gaming market."