Company Town

Multimedia: Video rental giant Blockbuster Corp. and film producer John Davis are expected to announce a joint venture Tuesday in an interactive technology firm called Catapult, to be headed by former Sony Pictures new-media guru Adam Grosser. Davis’ father, billionaire Marvin Davis, is also an investor in the venture, sources close to the deal said. They said the firm’s technology team has developed a system that will allow home video game players to compete with each other over standard phone lines without the delayed reaction time that has so far been a stumbling block for on-line multi-player gaming. The Catapult system can be used with any existing video game cartridge and is said to be compatible with all cartridge-based game machines. Consumers would plug a phone line into a jack on the device, dial a number and be connected to a national game service. The firm hopes to capitalize on game players’ desire to compete with each other rather than against a machine. Blockbuster and Davis declined to comment.