Escape.ai, the visionary entertainment platform founded by The Matrix academy award winning designer John Gaeta, and Play.Works, a provider of games for big-screen TVs, have partnered on taking AI films to connected TVs.
They say the deal marks a major step forward for next-generation storytelling on the biggest screens in the home. The Escape.ai platform focuses on films created by independent artists and creators who are embracing AI to make their cinematic experiences. The content on the platform is out of this world.
Together, the companies have launched the Escape.ai CTV app, now available on Roku and
The Roku Channel, Amazon Fire TV, LG and Samsung Smart TVs, bringing the revolutionary world of Escape: Neo Cinema and Beyond to millions of viewers for the first time in their living rooms. The combined total addressable market for these four platforms exceeds 400 million active devices worldwide, expanding escape.ai’s reach to a massive new audience.
As for the interactive or gaming side of things, Gaeta said, “There’s absolute interest in innovation in terms of interactive experiences and interactive TV. A lot of interesting things are happening. That’s what is interesting about CTV generally. It’s becoming a new outlet for creators generally.”
Origins
Escape.ai is about a year old. It launched in beta in March 2025 and it has drawn advisers such as Andrew Schneider, former CMO for Disney+.
“I’m trying to get Yoda-esque sage wisdom in the steps we take and how we’re thinking about growth,” Gaeta said.
“We curate the best in class creators. They really are the leading edge. This pioneer set has a lot of established people who are coming into this space as well,” he said. “It made sense for us to decide what form factor we really want to end up with.”
The company started out with online distribution for its AI cinema and those films are getting shared on social media.
Schneider started suggesting CTV as an avenue to reach more people on screens that worked for fans. The team worked on the project for half a year.
“But we want this work to be seen on the best screens that it can be, and connected TV with 4K screens across the planet” are increasingly important, Gaeta said.
A new dimension in storytelling
Escape.ai is a curated destination for bold, short-form cinema and episodic series based stories built for Gen Z. Powered by creator-driven content and cutting-edge AI, the platform redefines what it means to watch, play, and connect.
Featuring more than 1,000 original and creator-led projects, escape.ai spans genres from sci-fi and fantasy to anime to comedy and horror, with collections such as Genaime (anime-inspired), Brave New Worlds (futuristic & dystopian), and Game Worlds (next gen game concepts).
“Escape.ai is not just a channel—it’s an entirely new frontier for cinema,” said John Gaeta, CEO and founder of escape.ai. “By partnering with Play.Works, we’re bringing creators and
audiences together in a revolutionary new entertainment space built for the connected
generation, instantly available in the living room.”
Redefining entertainment on Connected TV
“Escape.ai represents the bold future of storytelling—inventive, interactive, and designed for how Gen Z experiences entertainment,” said Jonathan Boltax, CEO of Play.Works, in a statement. “We’re thrilled to bring this visionary content to life across Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung, with more platforms coming soon—reaching audiences where they live, play, and discover new worlds.”
The launch marks Escape.ai’s Connected TV debut, powered by Play.Works’ world-class CTV technology and distribution network. This collaboration transforms leading streaming platforms into dynamic destinations for cinematic storytelling and creative discovery.
Viewers can download the escape.ai app now on any of these CTV platforms. Apple TV coming soon.
It made sense to team up with Play.Works, which is facilitating Escape.ai’s presence across the variety of CTV platforms through various apps, Schneider said.
Schneider said, “They’re porting escape to be compatible with all of these connected TV devices.”
Gaeta added, “They also have their own casual games for their own brand. The possible addressable market is over 400 million people. That’s a huge possible addressable market.”
These platforms are capable enough to display big-screen video images in high-quality 4K visuals and also show off great 3D content.
“We’re bringing Escape.ai programming, the storytelling and cinema series,” Schneider said.
Play.Works is the No. 1 provider of CTV games and original TV channels, reaching over 400
million homes globally. With 400+ titles—including Pac-Man, SpongeBob Bounce, Wheel of Fortune, and Tetris—and AVOD/FAST channels like Jordan and Salish Matter, The Royalty Family, and Ninja Kidz TV, Play.Works brings interactive and creator-driven entertainment to the biggest screen in the home.
Gaeta said the company will create “lanes that are genre driven” on the platforms. These shows may evolve toward regular series where there is a special focus on them. The genres in the beginning include science fiction, anime, thrillers and visual music.
“It’s not the whole collection up front,” Gaeta said. “It is curated and especially programmed for CTV. Escape.ai intends to be an island of excellence. We want to be the leading edge of GenAI cinema can be.”
The future of entertainment
While some like the term AI cinema, Gaeta doesn’t necessarily like to emphasize the AI part. He sees it as Neo Cinema, enabled by new technologies. It’s the pathway to new intellectual property at a time when blockbuster franchises dominate entertainment. He wants to make sure that creators have a pathway to distributing quality intellectual property from brilliant minds.
And he thinks there will be a bigger convergence of interactive and linear content.
“This year is going to be an inflection point,” Gaeta said. “Distribution is complex. If you want to try to get on Netflix, that’s a multi-year journey. If you get there at all, it’s not the same kind of experience when it comes to the ability to retain ownership of your IP. If you’re trying to use YouTube, you could get lucky and score millions of eyes. But you’re adjacent to noise. You’re not really in a trusted environment.”
He added, “We’re trying to put the two things together. Find outlets like TV where you know the quality can be appreciated on the screen.”
As for making money, Gaeta said that ads and sponsorships are possible, on the road to premium subscriptions at some point.
“We’re building a first-class repository,” he said. “We’ll move to premium subscriptions later, when we feel like we’re ready.”
Over time, Gaeta believes that games and movies and short films will all sit side by side on platforms such as CTV, and they won’t need to be segmented anymore.
“Creators do not need to be segmented with passive video storytellers over there and interactive experiences or gaming makers over there,” he said.