The Million Pound Cube

Objective Productions first approached Channel 4 in 2008 with the format. It was made into a non-televised pilot by the channel,[4] and was hosted by Justin Lee Collins. Channel 4 eventually decided not to commission the show because it would have been too expensive.[5]

In February 2009, ITV purchased the rights to the show and filming began during April 2009 at Wembley's Fountain Studios. The Cube is one of the first shows to use the game freeze filming technique on a frequent basis, such as when a contestant jumps in celebration. The technique used is called "Bullet Time". Using specially designed cameras, it allows the viewer to see one side of the Cube before the action is frozen, spun to another face of the Cube and then resumed. Slow-motion shots are again common to show action replays of the task a contestant just completed, or the critical moment of a game, to heighten the excitement of whether the contestant will succeed or fail.

The show makes extensive use of CGI to project images onto the walls and ceiling of the Cube, while a screen on the floor is also capable of showing images. These film techniques make the seemingly simple tasks that are put before the contestants seem much more exciting than they would normally be.

For series 8, which premiered on 1 March 2014, the show received a revamp, including a new studio set (the wave lines in the background were replaced by a circular replica of the letter C), new opening credits, a redesign of graphics and several new games. The seven game format and prize money structure remained the same.

During Series 10 in 2020, 120 Canon DSLR cameras were used for the Bullet Time rig, 3 x Red Dragon EPIC 6K cameras and a separate rig was added to capture 3D Photogrammetry and Volumetric data by UK Bullet Time specialists New World Designs LTD[6] Due to the closure of Fountain Studios not long after the ninth series had concluded, the show moved to Television Centre, London.

Since the first episode, The Cube has had a prize money structure starting at £1,000 and ending at the £250,000 jackpot, though in the 2020 series, the jackpot was raised to £1,000,000.[7] Below is a breakdown of the prize money structure as used from Series 1–9, showing the game number and amount of prize money that can be won for successfully completing that game. If a player loses all their lives at any point during the game, they lose all the money they have accumulated to that point. The only exception is for celebrities, playing for charity, in which £1,000 is awarded. All games are different for each level, except for the jackpot, where a game is repeated, but at a much harder level. For example, decreased time, smaller targets or one more barrier, in Barrier.

The format has been sold to international broadcasters. As of 2017, eleven countries have produced their own versions of the show which have all ceased broadcasting and in the case of the US version, the Greek and the Turkish version have not even been shown (only a pilot was filmed).

Below is a breakdown of the countries that have created their own versions along with other information including the Jackpot available and broadcast dates.

Legend:

  Currently airing  

  No longer airing  

  Non-broadcast pilot  

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Top prize	Premiere/air dates	Status
Arab World[10]	The Cube	Dhaffer L'Abidine	Dubai TV	Dhs250,000	2 February – 27 April 2014	No longer airing
Australia[11]	The Cube	Andy Lee	Network 10	A$250,000	24 February 2021	Set to air on 24 February 2021
China	梦立方 Mèng lìfāng	Cheng Lei	Dragon TV	Prize[lower-alpha 2] or ¥250,000	13 May 2012 – 4 September 2013[12]	No longer airing
France	Le Cube	Nagui	France 2	€50,000	1 July – 30 August 2013	No longer airing
Germany	The Cube – Besiege den Würfel!	Nazan Eckes	RTL	€250,000	29 April 2011[13]	No longer airing
Greece	O κύβος O kubos	Unknown	Mega Channel	€75,000	2010	Non-broadcast pilot
Hungary	A Kocka	Nóra Ördög	TV2	10,000,000 Ft	23 November – 23 December 2015[14]	No longer airing
Italy	The Cube – La Sfida	Teo Mammucari	Italia 1	€100,000	7 – 28 September 2011[15]	No longer airing
Portugal	O Cubo	Jorge Gabriel	RTP1	€30,000	16 May – 11 July 2010	No longer airing
Russia[16]	Куб Kub	Dmitry Kharatyan	Channel One	₽3,000,000	30 March – 30 November 2013	No longer airing
Saudi Arabia	المكعب Al Moukaab	Faisal Al Issa	KSA 1	SR250,000	17 March – 8 July 2010	No longer airing
Spain	El Cubo	Raquel Sánchez Silva	Cuatro	€150,000	8 February – 14 August 2012[17]	No longer airing
				€250,000
Turkey	Kup	Unknown	Kanal D	250,000 lira	2010 (pilot rejected)	Non-broadcast pilot
Ukraine	Куб Kub	Maksim Chmerkovskiy	STB	250,000 ₴	21 November 2011 – 24 December 2012[18]	No longer airing
		Dmitry Tancovich		500,000 ₴	26 August 2013 – 29 December 2014
United States	The Cube	Neil Patrick Harris	CBS	$500,000	2010 (pilot rejected)	Non-broadcast pilot
		Dwyane Wade	TBA	TBA	TBA	Set to air in 2021[19][20][21]

Note

The UK version of The Cube is also formerly being simulcast in Ireland by Virgin Media One. It is broadcast in New Zealand on TV1, and in Australia on the Nine Network. Old series were broadcast in Bosnia and Herzegovina by RTRS, in Serbia by IQS Life and in Singapore by MediaCorp Channel 5.

Across all versions of the show, 6 contestants have won the final game and taken away the jackpot.

Country	Contestant	Jackpot game	Jackpot won	Number of lives left	Date
Arab World	Mark Johnson	Blind Shot	Dhs250,000	4	20 April 2014
China	Chen Kun	Extraction	¥250,000	3	22 July 2012 (Charity special)
	Wu Jing	Tower	¥250,000	1	2 May 2013 (Charity special)
Portugal	Vítor Costa	Barrier	€30,000		30 May 2010
Ukraine	Andriy Serko	Rapid Fire	250,000 UAH		29 October 2012
United Kingdom	Mo Farah	Barrier	£250,000 (original series)	6	14 July 2012 (Charity special)

An electronic board game based on the series was made available in stores from November 2010.[22] As of June 2011, the game has been discontinued by most main retailers.[23] The game comes with an electronic handheld system featuring games such as Time Freeze and Stop Zone, as well as 9 balls- six 18mm blow moulded balls, 1 30mm EVA foam ball, 1 25mm hard ball and one 50mm hard ball. The balls are used for different reasons and the foam ball is used for most games with a ball. For Multisphere, all balls are used unless it is being played in a room with hard floors, in that case eight balls are used. Tubes are used for almost every physical game for starting positions, voids, tubes, towers and columns.

Other equipment in the board game are track pieces, discs, clips, z shaped platform pieces, cannons, blocks, a ball flipper, a beam and card pieces,and a 7 cm x 7 cm x 7 cm plastic cube for playing a series of physical games. The cube is used for a container and to connect onto the cube platform for the electronic games. A reducer also comes with the cube, allowing it to reduce the size of the open top of the cube. This is, in almost all games involving the cube, removed in a simplify. Many well known and classic games are here as well as new games such as Roller, Catch, Retrieval and Bounce, everyday life games and interesting and complex games.

Around the time of the release of the board game, a Game App version of the series was made available via the iTunes store for use on the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. This app version originally featured sixteen games from the series: Balance, Cylinder, Descent, Drop Zone, Focus, Multisphere, Perimeter, Precision, Quantity, Reaction, Revolution, Shatter, Stabilise, Stop Zone and Time Freeze. The first update for the game came in April 2011 with Pulse added Another update for the game was made available in June 2011, adding a further free game, Succession, and making eight games available via in app purchase in 2 "packs" Exact, Pathfinder, Totalise and Tower in Pack one and Invert, Composure, Calculate and Navigate in Pack two. A further update was made available in October 2011, adding a further free game, Axis. 2 further games followed in 2012, Eliminate in April and Symmetry in October. In February 2013, Chase, which at that time had not been shown on TV, was made available. Almost a year later on 21 February 2014 Avoid was added. The most recent update came on 19 May 2014 when 4 games new games were made available via In App Purchase. These new games were Reset, Plummet, Selection and Tally all which are new games from the most recent series. There are currently 35 games available to play in the App version.

On 9 November 2012, a Cube game was released on consoles for the first time. It was available on the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS. 33 games are playable in this version including two unseen new games: Flight Path (already played in international versions) and Retrace. If the Cube is beaten, Extreme Mode is unlocked, featuring more extreme versions of five popular games: Revolution, Pathfinder, Perimeter, Rebound and Momentum.

• The Million Pound Cube at IMDb
• The Million Pound Cube at UKGameshows.com