The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is reportedly set to unveil plans to make a major play in the gaming industry at this month's Edinburgh Interactive Festival.
Scotland on Sunday reports that the BBC's new media boss, Simon Nelson, who is set to deliver a festival keynote on August 14, will detail the corporation's plans to put a greater emphasis on games.
The BBC currently offers downloadable games linked to popular shows such as Doctor Who, as well as providing a limited amount of child-orientated games via its CBBC and Blast operations.
According the festival programme of events, Nelson, who introduced podcasting to the BBC, will reveal why the corporation has 'something to learn from games and how games will figure in the beeb's new media folio in the future'.
UPDATE: The BBC has responded to the report, telling CVG that the upcoming presentation will "not reveal a major move into the games industry".
Here's the statement in full:
'Simon Nelson Controller Portfolio & Multimedia, BBC Vision will be doing a keynote at the Edinburgh Interactive Games Festival. However, the focus of his speech is on what the BBC can learn from the gaming industry (and vice versa). The presentation will not reveal a major move into the games industry and is in fact just reflective of the way in which various sectors of the entertainment industry are now converging and can learn from each others methods of working.'
Some of the games on the Doctor Who website are really good, I enjoyed playing them with my son, Cbeebies site is also very polished, so it'll be interesting to see what the beeb can do.
Personlly i'd play as Pat butcher, imagine the terrible weapons of mass destruction that could be hidden up her dress / coats. And if you complete the game in under 10 hours you unlock Pat, Peggy and Dot bikini outfits.
Personlly i'd play as Pat butcher, imagine the terrible weapons of mass destruction that could be hidden up her dress / coats. And if you complete the game in under 10 hours you unlock Pat, Peggy and Dot bikini outfits.
Sounds like lip service to the fact that games are getting increased visability in the news. The BBC is one of the media sources that always jumps on the PC bandwagon when a game is 'naughty'.
I can't help but get bad vibes about this. Whenever a big corporation blunderbusses their way into an industry that they have f**k all to do with, they generally take a long time to grasp the nature of said industry. In the meantime, we get a lot of misguided s**te being made.
Top gear the game please!!!! it'd add a bit a variety to the genre, you could play through a series of the show with clarkson and co commentating during races and have them set up the next race in a virtual studio ala the tv show.
Top gear the game please!!!! it'd add a bit a variety to the genre, you could play through a series of the show with clarkson and co commentating during races and have them set up the next race in a virtual studio ala the tv show.
Ooh yes! Did anyone see the Top Gear Winter Olympics last night? If I could play through that, that would be awesome.
And to anyone who thinks this is a bad thing: How exactly is it bad? Okay, it may take them a while to get into the swing of things, but in the end, it's another UK developer at a time when game development in this country has been a bit wobbly. When Auntie Beeb moves to Salford, I'm gonna get me a job with 'em!
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