Talking Tom creators Outfit7 are set to join the craze of in-car collaborations by forming a partnership with Google.

The studio will be offering their title My Talking Tom Friends in any car utilising Google Automotive Service integration. The title follows on from Outfit7’s lucrative franchise of virtual pet games, featuring six of the series’ characters together for the first time. It also marks Outfit7’s first in-car collaboration, a trend that has slowly begun to gather steam with major mobile makers such as Rovio bringing their titles to in-car touchscreens.

CEO of Outfit7, Xinyu Qian said, "We are thrilled to partner with Google on this innovative project, expanding the reach of My Talking Tom Friends to even more players. We are proud that our long-standing partner Google has identified Outfit7 as one of the very few selected partners to be included in their new venture."

You can have it with any game, as long as it’s Talking Tom

The advantages of bringing mobile games to in-car entertainment systems seems obvious. Since many in-car entertainment systems now use the self-same touch-screen technology, as our tablets and smartphones, porting these titles to cars requires minimal alteration of existing controls. Meanwhile their accessibility and ease of use in a 'captive marketplace' will appeal to a broad range of age groups, especially younger players who might be bored on long car journeys.

There have been some obvious issues that have led to legislation preventing games from being played in front seats when the car is in motion, but, with the advent of wider screens on dashboards and rear screens for rear seat passengers, it seems obvious that the future of in-car entertainment will be inextricably linked to mobile gaming.

And as big brands and famous names head in-car you can bet that we'll be seeing a whole new slew of mobile content (and revenue opportunities) doing likewise.