iRobot – Makers Of Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Release iOS Game – Roomba Revenge

In an intriguing move, iRobot - makers of Ro0mba - the popular robotic vacuum cleaners have just released - wait a minute - it's not an app to control Roomba - but an iOS game called Roomba Revenge.

Here's a description of the game from iTunes:

Control the world-famous iRobot Roomba vacuum as he battles his way through 20 levels, riddled with filth-spreading, ill-tempered Dust Bunnies. Enter Revenge Mode to suck them up and reveal the treasures they hold captive.

Not only do Dust Bunnies hop between you and divine cleanliness.  Cats scan the rooms, eager for a free ride on Roomba.  Gates block doorways to -precious dust and need to be unlocked.  Furniture forms mazes and blockades.  Tenants pick you up lovingly and deliver you to different areas on the map. Time counts down which means you need to act fast.

You can checkout the demo video of Roomba Revenge in the comments:

For a second we thought maybe it's a great move, as the iOS game could be a good tool for brand awareness. But, the $0.99 price tag for the iOS game clearly indicates that iRobot doesn't want to use it as a marketing tool and instead wants to generate incremental revenue from it.

You can download Roomba Revenge using this App Store link.

iRobot media rep had this to tell TechCrunch about the iOS game:

"No, iRobot isn’t becoming a gaming company. They did this just because having fun and making cool stuff is part of their DNA. In fact, the idea for a game featuring the world-famous robot was born via a casual text-message conversation between two iRobot employees.”

Some interesting comments by TechCrunch readers:

Amy writes:

This is actually brilliant. They could use this as a way to improve the functionality/programming of their products, just by monitoring what game-players do in order to solve problems. And charge money for the privilege of cleaning houses!

Kelly comments:

This is purely marketing, and smart. It gets you to think about Rooma. It gets you to play with a virtual Roomba, plus how long can it take to recover costs at a buck an app?

David has this to say:

Apps (especially free ones) are a kind of ad. And, I'm sure it gives Roomba owners a little pride to see their device in an iOS game.

But Greg's comment is our favorite:

Irony. The automation of the vacuuming is designed to reduce the amount of time we spend doing mundane, mindless tasks. Apparently so we have time to do the same task on our iPhones. For fun.

What do you think? Any guesses why a company with $896.28 million market cap (at the time of writing this post) would release an iOS game?

[via TechCrunch]

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