Usually, when Roku drops some news, it’s about new free channels coming to The Roku Channel or an update to Roku OS. This time, though, it’s doing something a little different and diving into gaming. Ahead of the Oscars, Roku has announced a new interactive trivia game called “Roklue,” which will test your knowledge of popular movies and TV shows.
Roklue will appear right on the Roku home screen, and each game asks you five questions, and you’ll have 10 seconds to answer each one. The answer to every question is called a “Roklue,” and by the end of the quiz, you’ll use all five Roklues to figure out which movie or TV show the game is referring to.
Once you finish, Roku will display a link on the screen that takes you directly to the movie or show the quiz is based on, so you can begin watching. Essentially, it’s another way for Roku to serve up an ad and help you find something to watch without endlessly scrolling through The Roku Channel.
The first edition of Roklue that is launching is called “Roklue: Awards Season,” which features questions “inspired by Hollywood’s biggest award show moments and celebrated films.” And with the Oscars right around the corner, the timing makes sense. If you’re interested in checking out Roklue and putting your trivia skills to the test, the experience launches on March 7, and Roku says it will appear right on the home screen with “no downloads or complex setup required.”
Roku wants to evolve Roklue throughout the year
The game will be connected to other pop culture events
Roku has detailed some of its future plans for Roklue, including evolving the experience throughout the year with different editions based on pop-cultural moments and events. While it didn’t go into detail about what those events or moments will be, according to Variety, future versions of Roklue based on musical festivals, the Emmys, and holidays will be rolling out later this year.
“At Roku, we’re creating experiences you can’t get anywhere else — streaming that is interactive, fun, and powered by the full breadth of content on the platform,” explained Lisa Holme, head of content at Roku Media, in a press release. “Roklue will connect streamers to shows and movies in a way that makes discovery feel less like work and more like play.”
Personally, Roklue seems like a fun little game, so I’ll definitely try it when it launches. And I have to give them credit for the name, since it’s catchy. However, while it’s nice to see Roku expand somewhat into gaming with this trivia game, it would be really great to see the platform make efforts to expand into cloud gaming, as Fire TV has with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna, and GeForce Now.
All in all, if you feel like briefly putting down Resident Evil Requiem or Pokémon Pokopia this weekend, Roklue launches on March 7, and you can find it right on the Roku home screen if you want to play it, no download required.
In other Roku news, the company recently launched a new search feature in its live TV guide to make it easier to find free channels.
