More than a half a million unique contestants competed in the 15 week beta season of 1 vs 100, and Microsoft wants even more to show up for round two. The second season of the game show kicks off on November 19th at 5:00 pm Pacific Time, with 1 vs 100 Extended Play. Extended Play features new themed trivia every week night, giving players a chance to capitalize on their strengths, giving them a better chance at being chosen as one of The Mob or perhaps even The One himself.

Nearly 2 million Microsoft points were given away as prizes during the first season, so you might want to keep an eye on the schedule this time around. Even if you aren't a big fan of trivia, you could win enough points to buy a game you really want to play. No pain, no gain?

Also disclosed were the records for players in one night (230,000 in North America, 215,000 in Europe), as well as simultaneous players (114,000 in a single session in North America, 79,000 in the UK & Ireland).

For reference, the game is only currently available in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and France.

As you might have heard, this coming weekend last weekend will be was the first involving skill-based prizes for players during the 1 vs. 100 beta test. This weekend, Friday to Sunday (July 17 to 19), not only will full-freight Gold members be competing for Microsoft points and other prizes, freeloading Silver types will be allowed in on the fun, too. And silver members will earn entries in the 1 vs. 100 sweepstakes for all questions they answer.

Naturally, this is a big enticement to go up to Gold status. The odds of you actually getting in the Mob, much less becoming The One, over just three days of free play starting from scratch - well, some fast-talking sweepstakes terms and conditions narrator might be able to quote you that, but my guess is they're quite low.

Silver Multiplayer Weekender [Xbox.com via Examiner.com]

The accidental leak came after The One, as many have been wont to do during the beta, either ignored or didn't remember the caution that choosing the money over the Mob results in a big fat zilch toward your MS points balance. Cash prizes are not being awarded in Beta. So Cashman jumped on the mike at a break to tsk-tsk about that, and overshared a little.

According to Xboxic, which was playing when it happened, Cashman reminded the players that "prizes cannot be be won until next week!

Having realised what he just said, the host mumbled his words and continued to speak at a faster pace - then announced again for us to watch out next week when a huge announcement is coming for 1 vs 100, before continuing to babble on about his lack of an original gamertag to move away from the subject!

I've emailed a Microsoft rep to see if they want to take a swing at this. At minimum, I'd expect some sort of announcement soon on a full 1 vs. 100 release.

Update: Reader LuppyLuptonium says he was in the same game and disputes Xboxic's account. Here's his take:

I was playing from the crowd. He didn't say that there would be no prizes til next week. He said tune in for a big announcement next week. Whoever sent that tip is mistaken ... I just walked over to my girlfriend in the other room who was playing with me and she said she didn't hear that either.

In fact later he addressed the people getting skyrocketing scores, citing it is a bug and needs to be fixed before they can start giving gamer points away.

So there you have it - I guess we can say "look for a big announcement." But whether it's the full release of 1 vs. 100 is in dispute.

1 vs. 100 an Announcement is Coming Soon [xboxic]

From today through Sunday, June 28, Silver Xbox Live members get access to the trivia game which pits Xbox members against one another in a game-show like setting.

The show, which hands out real prizes, gave away a car last weekend. I've played the beta once so far, and my whole family ending up pitching in to help with answers. It was a surprisingly fun family game.

While the 1 Vs. 100 Live product page on Xbox.com previously implied the game show was going to be free for Gold members, it now specifies that only the beta season will be included with Gold Membership. When we previewed the game a little over a month ago, the "free" plan was still in place.

But Kotaku readers taking part in the beta version of the Primetime program have noticed the option to purchase a "Season Pass" for the program, which runs 13-week-long video game seasons. Unfortunately, any attempts to do so have resulted in errors and that option appears to have been removed from Xbox Live.

Microsoft already monetizing the service with in-game ads, but it may be looking to underwrite (and profit from) Season Pass purchases for the show.

And that "Buy Season Pass" option may make 1 Vs. 100 Live playable by those of Xbox Live Silver status, which would make the Primetime offering available to a much wider audience.

We've contacted Microsoft to get clarification on the issue but have yet to receive a response.

The U.S.'s first live beta event was scheduled for 10:30 p.m. EDT. At that time, having already downloaded the beta, I got an error screen (GO29) telling me "the game session is full." This is, I mean literally, at the first minute the game was supposed to go live.

Update: Through 1 vs. 100's official Tweet, we're all being advised to get in early, as participation will be on a first-come, first-served basis. No word on any maximum participation size. But 1 vs. 100 live host Chris Cashman, who referred throughout the evening to the 50,000 in attendance, mentioned that the capacity limit will be removed for the Saturday show. Other Microsoft types had been Tweeting about the stress on the system, so perhaps this was a test.

Figuring I perhaps had a corrupted file (possibly from the Canadian beta gate crash?) I redownloaded the beta. I still got the same error message, and further, when trying to activate the game through the download history of my account management tab, got the following:

I Tweeted Major Nelson about this (no reply yet) but several who follow my account mentioned they had the same error; virtually all my XBL friends (including, of course, Hardcasual) complained of the same thing. And further, via Tweet, a participant actually in the game said 1 vs 100's online host mentioned more than 50,000 people were in the first night's live episode. That speaks very well of the game's demand for MIcrosoft. But compared to the roughly 8 million Xbox Live gold members, it's a problem.

This is total speculation that an actual participation cap is in place, and that this isn't another kind of error or overload. Still, no maximum has been mentioned in the preceding discussion of the game. And it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people are on the outside looking in on 1 vs 100's debut night in the United States. More if it develops.

Update: The Canadian Beta closed tonight, rendering some of this moot. Sorry about that.

Kotaku reader Tai Youkai Sama figured out how to do it rather simply. He found nothing prevented him from creating a Canada-based Xbox Live account, then using it to send his U.S.-based account reminder notices the next time 1 vs. 100 went live. Bingo, when he accepted the notice, it allowed him to download the beta. And from there, he was able to invite plenty of Yanks - myself among them - to also download the game and peek in on the fun. Here's what I saw and what you might see, unless and until Microsoft tightens the IP filtering and kicks us out.

• In terms of news, or at least new-ish things, once the live show's over, you quit out of the game by exiting to the mythical Primetime channel (above). This was announced at E3 last year, then delayed from its original Nov. 19 launch. Primetime is where you'll find 1 vs. 100 and, presumably, other shows as Xbox Live builds out its content offerings. It allows you to schedule notices of upcoming events, but for now it appears to be region-locked, as it's inaccessible from Xbox Live once you exit the channel. Right now, the only show is 1 vs. 100, and the next broadcast, for U.S. players is listed as Dec. 31 at 3 am.

• U.S. users for now have to access the beta through their download history in the account management tab. It will not show up in the games library. (Nor will Primetime show up for you in your browser). The few times I've tried going back into 1 vs. 100 when an episode was not scheduled, it gave me an error message and dumped me back into Primetime or the main menu. Although U.S. users can invite friends, they'll have to do it within 1 vs. 100's lobby, and they'll only get there when a show's on. There's some extended freeplay scheduled for tonight around 4 pm MDT (2 hours from now).

• The game itself is very enjoyable, even moreso when you're with a party of friends, barking out answers, laughing at the inane answer choices, or boasting about (sigh ... aboat) getting it right when all else failed. Stephen Totilo's written up the game mechanics already. Refer over to that for a primer on how it works. But you can go in cold and, if you focus just on answering questions correctly, and listen to the choices the host gives to "The One," you'll have a good time and get the hang of the show after one session.

• As of now, all prizes are bogus - that goes for the Xbox Live Arcade games The Mob wins when The One craps out, as well as any Microsoft Points accumulated by The One, who is given the option of cashing out early or trying to outlast all 100 in the Mob. Since the cash doesn't exist, there's no reason to take the money and run, although some players yesterday didn't know that.

• Stephen's observations about questions being too easy also is right on the mark. Unfortunately, this can cause the bored to outsmart themselves, thinking that the obvious answer is a red herring. (There will always be at least one blatantly obvious incorrect answer.) I incorrectly answered that South America, not Australia, was home to the most marsupials, simply because I figured there might be a ton of possum down there or something. Don't make it complicated, because it's not.

• Two people were able to beat the entire mob of 100 last night. I'm sure this is partly because they had nothing to lose, so everyone kept playing, but I doubt Microsoft wants that to happen so frequently.

• The more dated questions proved to be the most difficult. A question about Dolly Parton singing the title song in "9 to 5," a 1980 movie, booted a bunch of people from the Mob. On the other hand, a question about "Mr. Dressup," a Canadian children's show, weeded out all the Americans.

• The host did live phone interviews with previous winners from the evening. (One, from Prince Edward Island, won playing on her brother's XBL account. I'm sure this will be an issue going forward.) None of The Ones, nor did it appear that anyone featured from the Mob, was from the U.S. I'm not sure if they're region-locking your ability to get into The Mob. (I didn't, and none of my friends did.) It's still fun to play along.

• The advertising is also inoffensive and largely organic. Really, it's a gameshow, so you have to expect the sponsor breaks. Plus it allows you to get up and pee or grab a beer, or check your stats. I saw spots for Sprint and a Naruto DVD during breaks. However, one question about a Burger King ad from 2006 led me to believe that some of the questions themselves could be sponsored. I hope not.

• The avatars' reactions are delightful. Especially when The One is sweating out (sigh ... oat) a question or calling in for help. My avatar didn't seem to be doing much of anything up in the audience though, even though my other three party members were dancing, roof-raising and doing all sorts of things. I was wondering if I was doing, or not doing, something to cause that, or if I was inert on my screen but going crazy on everyone else's.

So, there you have it - a look inside the closed beta for all the non-Canadians, and a way to possibly get in on the action. 1 vs. 100 is a very innovative, very memorable experience the first time you do it. I'm looking forward to tonight's play. I'm not sure how long the replay value will last - this is for now a cool thing to do with my long weekend. But once Microsoft adds real prizes, that should boost interest, and fun, considerably.

1 vs 100 has one thing in common with every other Xbox 360 game. The massively multiplayer Xbox 360 game show will have Achievements. And that means that even people who don't want to play it can mine it for Achievement Points.

There will be lots. We didn't win any when we tried the game, but we still got the good news about them for Achievement fiends.

Microsoft's plan for 1 vs 100 is for the multiplayer game show to run for 13-week seasons. Each season will offer players the chance to gain 200 Achievement Points. New season, new Achievements.

Because 1 vs 100 is free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers (who have to pay annually for Gold, of course), these will be some of the cheapest Achievement Points achievable on the system.

No word yet on what the Achievements will be.

What Is It?
1 Vs 100 is the sometimes-live 13-week game show being released for free to all Xbox Live Gold members later this year. Prizes are awarded for answering multiple-choice trivia questions, with the best wins — depending on which of three roles you play in the game — netting players 10,000 Microsoft points, a free Xbox Live Arcade game, or an entry into a season-wide prize sweepstakes for stuff like Zunes. Prizes are offered only for contestants aged 18 and up. At last, a game for adults!

What We Saw
Posing as a guy from MTV a couple of weeks ago, your Deputy Managing Editor told the Microsoft people he was switching jobs and was still allowed to share a couch with three other games reporters in New York City for a live run through a 1v100 session. The session was emceed by the show's host Chris Cashman, back in a sound booth in Seattle. At least a dozen other real people were playing from other 360s.

How Far Along Is It?
The game ran smoothly from beginning to end. It didn't just have its gameplay features working but even a lot of its in-game advertising in place. It goes into Canadian beta later this week.

What Needs Improvement?
Easy Questions: Let us hope that we were told a fact when a Microsoft rep assured us that questions for 1v100 would never be repeated. This must be so, because who wants to play a game show that includes the following question (which your DME got right!): "What country is the 2008 movie Australia set in? 1) New Zealand, 2) Australia, 3) Papua New Guinea"

More Complex Than Wheel of Fortune: Maybe Microsoft will mail people an instruction manual, and maybe it was just too early in the morning when Microsoft was showing the game, but there's a chance that first-time players will find the rules 1 vs 100 baffling. Let's break this down: 1v100 will be run live on Fridays and Saturdays at scheduled sessions that last a couple of hours. You play as your Xbox avatar. Any Xbox Live Gold member can be a member of the audience, aka the Crowd. This lets them answer questions and be linked to three local players or friends in an Xbox Live party. Crowd players earn chances to win sweepstakes prizes. Playing in the Crowd also increases the likelihood that the player will be chosen to join… the Mob. That Mob is the "100" part of 1 vs 100. Members of the Mob see their avatar seated against a big wall a la the Brady Bunch show opening, if the Brady Bunch got randy and had 100 members in the family. Every round of the game sees a new "1" selected from the Mob. The core of the game involves the 1 and the 100 answering the same trivia questions. If the 1 gets it wrong, he or she is knocked out of competition. If a member of the 100 gets it wrong they're dropped from the 100. For every question the 1 gets right, he or she amasses potential Microsoft Points winnings and has the option to cash out. But he or she needs to outlast everyone in the 100. The 100 can win prizes as well, but only once 40 players have been eliminated. The Mob's prize can be a free Xbox Live Arcade game, pre-determined by the show's organizers (which you may already own). Got all that?

And There Are More Rules: I haven't even explained the non-live, every-weekday mode called Extended Play in which everyone is in the Mob and winnings count toward chances to be picked to be in the Mob for the live games. Complex as this all sounds, we were having fun.

Local Scores Unimportant: Plenty of games are fun. But "fun" is so old-fashioned compared to the chance to win fabulous prizes. Microsoft's trailer for 1 vs 100 promises that beyond high scores is winning real prizes and that "beyond gaming is 1 vs 100." OK. Then, how come when me and three other people are playing on a couch — each of us also in the Mob — but winning nothing for beating each other?

What Should Stay The Same?
Non-Invasive Advertising: All the Microsoft reps' discussion of Sprint sponsorship and Honda ads seemed ripe for disaster. But the ads in 1 vs 100 weren't a bother at all. The virtual game show set is branded with Sprint signage. A between-sessions break throws more ads onto the screen, but even during that break a player can call up their stats and study their performance.

It's Live: Some of the announcer chatter during the live games of 1 vs 100 is canned. But host Chris Cashman will call out performances and talk about what's happening in the game. He'll also call players up, as he did with me, and record quick interviews that get played during the breaks. He chatted with me about my performance. I accused him of being as shady as the guy in Slumdog Millionaire. He laughed it off.

Everyone Gets A Shot: Microsoft has the right idea about getting new people into the hot-seats for this game. They estimate that up to 1500 people have a shot at getting in the Mob per live session. And the stats that improve your chance for selection — earned by playing the Live and Extended versions of the game regularly — will be re-set each week. So the elite players shouldn't get all the shots at the glory.

Final Thoughts
For those of us who have failed to be competitive in first-person shooters, fighting games and other popular online Xbox Live games, we may finally be able to achieve some victories through 1 vs 100. The game doesn't have the nifty controllers of Sony's Buzz series, but if lag isn't a problem, the prospect of playing against hundreds of other gamers at once and schooling them at trivia should be a lot of fun.

Okay, it isn't quite that awesome. Basically the show pits a contestant against the combined minds of 100 people. The game will actually include a fun multiplayer mode that pits the player against a friend, effectively making the game 1vs. 1 and therefor not nearly as entertaining, but still.

Expect to see Bob Saget's smiling face adorning game store shelves this June.

ENDEMOL AND DESTINATION SOFTWARE, INC. BRING THE EXCITEMENT OF THE SMASH TV HIT "1 VS. 100" TO PORTABLE VIDEO GAMING

NEW JERSEY (May 20, 2008)—Endemol and Destination Software Incorporated (DSI) today announced the release of a video game for the Endemol franchise "1 vs. 100." The title will be in-stores in June for the Nintendo DS™ system for $19.99. This is the second collaboration for the two companies, as DSI published the multi-platform video game release for "Deal or No Deal" in 2007.

The "1 vs. 100" game recreates the television smash hit while additional modes of play add elements completely unique to the portable video game. Players can compete against a friend through a multiplayer challenge in a tense battle of the brains, as one player must assume the role of "The Mob" of 100 and stop the other from winning. Other variations include a Poker-style trivia game, where players wager cash based on their confidence of the answer. The video game will feature "1 vs. 100" television host Bob Saget.

"We strive to find unique ways to expand home entertainment and television viewership, and bringing a fantastic TV game show like '1 vs. 100' to portable video gaming achieves those objectives," says Tina Hoover, Director of Production for Endemol USA. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with DSI as they achieve repeated success with the family and casual gaming markets."

"We at DSI are incredibly excited to continue our partnership with Endemol," says Steve Newton, Executive Vice President of DSI. "Bringing this incredibly successful game show to a portable video game system allows players to enjoy not only the game, but also a library of challenging trivia questions. '1 vs. 100' is a perfect pick-up-and-play video game title."

In both its seasons on air, "1 vs. 100" has consistently been the #1 or #2 rated program in its timeslot, handily beating tough competition. Also, the show's ratings consistently increase from the first half hour to the second, proving that viewers just can't turn it off and can't get enough!

The deal between DSI and Endemol was facilitated by Joy Tashjian Marketing Group (JTMG) and DSI's licensing agent, 360ep, Inc.

For more information on the "1 vs. 100" video game, visit www.dsigames.com.