Deep Silver signs Prison Break game deal

This will probably not turn out the way it was intended, but Deep Silver has inked a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising to publish a video game based on the popular Fox television series Prison Break. The game is being developed by Zootfly, will be released by Deep Silver for next gen consoles and PC at an undisclosed date.

The protagonist of the Prison Break game is Company agent Tom Paxton, who is sent to the Fox River State Penitentiary to find out why Michael Scofield (the hero of the TV series), a man without a previous criminal record, became a bank robber. The storyline runs parallel to the first season of Prison Break, with Paxton encountering several characters from the series and experiencing key events from his own perspective.

Good luck Deep Silver.

Three new Discovery channel games in 2009, 2010

Discovery Communications has signed multiple licensing deals that will see two popular shows on the Discovery Channel turned into mobile phone games. Built for mobile, PC and console gaming platforms, games based on the popular Deadliest Catch and Cash Cab and a Discovery Channel-branded trivia game will debut between June 2009 and holiday 2010.

Capcom will develop a video game based on the popular trivia reality show, Cash Cab,. On the show and in the game, unsuspecting faires take a cab and find themselves being asked trivia questions with the chance of winning cold hard cash. Winners get some money, but losers get tossed to the sidewalks of New York city (tthough not in ther literal sense). The game is set for release in June for mobile phone games and iPhone.

The Deadliest Catch Mobile game, developed by Hands-On Mobile charcges players with charting their ship’s course in and around Dutch Harbor, Alaska using one of the boats and crews from the series to try their hand at filling their crab holds and become the winning boat in the fleet.

Finally there’s Discovery Channel Trivia, a PC and next-generation console game that challenges players to test their knowledge of the Discovery channel’s top shows. The game, which will feature questions based on facts from Discovery Channel programs, will launch holiday 2010. It is being developed by Slitherine Software, who already does a lot of simulation work for the network’s various programs.

Robot Chicken Invades Spore Galactic Adventures

The writers of Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken TV show and Spore Galactic Adventures Maxis have teamed up to create a special adventure that will be available at the product’s launch. The Adventures created by writers from this outrageously funny TV show will be available as free downloadable content when the game launches June 23.

The concept for this campaign was the work of Robot Chicken co-creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich and executed by the writing team including Matt Beans, Doug Goldstein, Mike Fasolo, Breckin Meyer, Dan Milano, Tom Root, Kevin Shinick, Hugh Sterbakov and Zeb Wells. Maxis says that players can expect to experience missions with exploding feces, angry yetis, ruler yielding librarians and more. Check out Robot Chicken’s exploits as they create Adventures at www.spore.com/wtf.

Netflix Survey: Wii Streaming Service

A Netflix survey being present to some subscribers of the popular “by mail and Internet” DVD rental service may indicate some future plans of the service on platforms other than the Xbox 360, reports Joystiq. The survey asks participants to read a description of a Netflix product and to answer questions about it.

 That product consist of “Netflix Instant Streaming Disc” that users would put into their Wii, enabling them to stream an entertainment selection from its library of 12,000 titles. The disc would apparently have to be inserted in the Wii to use the service, but all the functionalities associated with Netflix streaming solution would apply: rewind, pause, fast forward, etc.

If nothing else the survey proves that Netflix would love to be able to break into the lucrative Wii space, but it doesn’t mean that the idea is a lock either… and if Netflix “is” considering streaming content via the Wii, what of the PS3? Wouldn’t that be an easier platform to get into to? We think yes, but there’s no survey for that.

There’s one other thing the survey proves: The Xbox 360 deal Netflix has going has certainly kept the company in the black in the early part of 2009. More deals mean more money.

G4 Scales Back Shows, Cuts Staff

G4’s X-Play and Attack of the Show are being scaled back, and some staff from both television programs have been let go according to a report on Joystiq. Citing an earlier conversations with “reliable sources” close to the company and a confirmation from G4, Joystiq reports that both shows will be scaled back to three original episodes a week beginning March 3.

The company confirmed that both shows had been scaled back and that some staff were let go, but didn’t comment on actual numbers. A company spokesmen said that the saving will be used for more “original programming.” The company also said that these were not budget cuts, but more of a roll-back to the old number of new episodes per week.

G4, much like MTV, VHI and even TV Land are suffering from an overabundance of unoriginal bullshit programming like Star Trek and a multitude of Japanese game shows and anime. It’s a shame because they were at one time the best game related network on television. Now, not so much.

SCI FI, TRION Power Up

SCI FI and Trion World Network have hired two key industry veterans to help co-develop a connected video game and television show. Kevin Beardslee joins Trion to serve as Senior Development Director for the project at Trion’s San Diego development studio. Television writer Peter Egan has been tapped to write the pilot episode. 

Kevin Beardslee has over 15 years experience in game design, with over a decade spent developing MMO’s. Most notably, Kevin served as a key member of Blizzard Entertainment’s core development team for MMO World of Warcraft before founding Carbine Studios, a division of NCsoft North America, where he created and oversaw the development of an unannounced MMO. Working with Trion, Beardslee will act as the Senior Development Director for the co-developed SCI FI – Trion MMO video game. Peter Egan’s television experience includes Playmakers (ESPN) and Over There (FX Network). For NBC Entertainment, Peter served as a writer on several series including Medium and Medical Investigation. Egan also served as writer and story editor on the SCI FI series, The Dresden Files.

Trion and SCI FI hope to transcend the standard television and gaming experience by simultaneously co-developing a game and cable television property. The Trion – SCI FI partnership promises a synergy between entertainment mediums creating a “single rich, fictional universe of story telling.”

CSI: NY Actors Tapped For Game

Ubisoft is doing its best to make sure that its newest CSI game, CSI New York is as authentic as it possibly can be. The company has spent the extra dough to bring the actors from the show in to reprise their roles in the game. among them, Golden Globe winner Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, Carmine Giovinazzo, Eddie Cahill, Hill Harper, Anna Belknap, Robert Joy and A.J. Buckley.

CSI: NY – The Game promises to allow you to play as actual characters from the TV show, a graphic novel art style, interactive mini-games and interrogations, as well as original cases crafted by writers from the “CSI: NY” television series. The game will launch for the PC on November 18th, in time for the 2008 holiday season.