Great news for those of us who love the BBC and the wide array of fantastic shows they produce, The BBC wants to get into the business of gaming. They want to get developers into making games based on BBC properties such as Top Gear and Doctor Who (YEA!)
Via MCVUK.com
After spending years sat on the fence, the BBC is returning to games in a big way, MCV can exclusively reveal.
Via its commercial arm BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster is courting both publishers and developers to turn Doctor Who, Top Gear, In The Night Garden and many, many more into games for all audiences.
No stone will go unturned: the BBC wants to see its brands on iPhone and Facebook as much as it wants to see them on DS and Wii.
“We are open to conversations with anybody in games about all kinds of business models to see how we can extract more value,” said Neil Ross Russell, MD of children’s and licensing.
“Outside of Disney we have the most well-known line-up of children’s characters around the world.”
It’s a big about-turn for the broadcaster. The BBC closed its Multimedia division in 2005 after sales crashed in its boxed product business, subsequently aborting an attempt to get a PS2 game of spy thriller Spooks off the ground.
“We’ve been reactive to the market in the last few years,” explained Dave Anderson, head of multimedia development at BBC Worldwide.
“There were a few opportunistic licensing deals, but we were largely aggregating and holding on to our properties to wait and see how the market developed.”
The new effort will push key kids’ IPs towards games for DS and Wii, while more long-running brands find their feet on all sorts of platforms.
But the move goes beyond just licensing out properties.
Said Ross Russell: “What we’re trying to do is build the brands here – this is not about opportunistic licensing. If we wanted to do that we would have done more with these key brands over the last few years.”
As part of the move, BBC Worldwide has hired former EA and Yahoo exec Robert Nashak as EVP of digital entertainment. More details on his appointment will follow tomorrow.
MCV will reveal more on BBC's new strategy to fund new titles based on its properties and work closer with games publishers and developers next week.
(it could look like this!)
I could not be more happy as this gets me one step closer to a Doctor Who videogame. I still think Telltale gamesshould get the Who license and make a sweet adventure game. Well at least now the dream is still alive.
And British Invasion Week is upon us, so without further ado lets get on with the show:
First let me start with a DISCLAIMER, I am no expert on British media but I do feel like I’ve been exposed to more than your average person and as thus my opinion is exactly that MY opinion I’m just trying to spread the word on some fun shows that you may or may not have heard of. That all being said take a seat, grab a pint and enjoy!
Sinatra’s Top 14 British Television Shows (Part 1)
#14. Grownups
For a show titled Grownups the content is actually pretty juvenile but it’s a very amusing kind of juvenile. The show tells the story of a group of people in their mid to late twenties living the kind of life that’s somewhere between high school and adulthood, the time we you choose whether to grow up or continue partying for just a little longer.
Grownups takes the form of a sitcom and as thus you get the kind of humor you’d expect. It’s not a bad thing far from it the jokes all seem fresh which is probably mainly due to the fact that there jokes from another country but for the most part they all make sense and will get a chuckle.
The cast of characters are pretty fun for the most part. Sheridan Smith stars as Michelle who is the kind of girl that would rather party all night and go home with a different guy everyday then focus on her career and get her life in order, those aren’t really likeable traits but something about Smith makes you like her, maybe it’s the shrill voice of hers but there is something oddly attractive about her. The other characters that back up Michelle are Claire (Michelle’s man crazy boss), Dean (Michelle’s egotistical boyfriend), Grant (The hopeless romantic) and the stand out of the show Mike or as you’ll come to know him as DJ Mike played by Rob Rouse. Mike is the kind of man-child character that you’ve probably seen a thousand times but his actions and his DJ Mike songs just work and get me to laugh every time.
The show has so far run 3 series running a total of 22 episodes, I originally watched the 2nd and 3rd series on television while I was in the U.K. and it hooked me enough to buy the Region 2 release of the first series which I finally watched not to long ago. This review mostly refers to the first series as characters leave and new characters are introduced as the series progresses but many of the new characters are just as funny as the older ones, although I have a problem with Mike only being in the first.
The show has yet to be released in the U.S. and I don’t really see it happening anytime soon so do yourself a favor find a way to watch it (I've included an Amazon.co.uk link for importers with a region free player) if your looking for a sexually charged sitcom about growing up and living life. Sure it’s kind of (really) stupid at times but its all in jest and you’ll laugh a few times for your troubles, give it a go.
This is one of a few shows on the list that has a bit of a following in the U.S. due to the fact that it runs on BBC America. For those not in the know Top Gear is about Cars, lots of sweet F’ing cars!
The show is presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May whom are all funny in their own right and work well off of one another. The group put together various segments about a number of different cars every episode. We see the group test driving cars, racing cars, modifying cars and well anything else you can think of they do it to cars.
The show originally started in 1977 and reached its peak in popularity is the 90’s before being relaunched in 2002 by the current crew. Many popular segments have been introduced over the years including “Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car” which just like it states places a celebrity in a car that didn’t cost and arm and a leg and let’s them complete a lap around a test track, the times of all the celebrities are compared to see whom is the fastest.
Another main stay of the show is The Stig, an anonymous, helmeted race car driver who test drives many expensive cars around a test track in order to compare times with other super priced cars (sounds a lot like the celebrity segment I know).
I’m in no way a “Car Guy” but I just love this show. The three hosts are fun to watch and seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs (and who wouldn’t) and the show never seems to hit a slow patch. The show is so popular in fact that much like many popular U.K. properties the United States is readying it’s own version that may or may not see the light of day.
You can currently watch Top Gear basically daily on BBC America and several seasons are available on DVD in the states (for a change) so give it a go as it beats a lot of the same kind of programming you’d see on say discovery or travel channel.
