New MMO title to be built in the US
BBC Worldwide has signed a deal with Californian studio Three Rings to develop a new MMO based on the Doctor Who franchise.
The game, suffixed ‘Words in Time’, will mark BBC Worldwide ’s first foray into the MMO market. A Doctor Who adventure game, released last year, was developed at UK-based outfit Sumo digital.
Three Rings, an independent games studio, has several projects under its belt. It focuses its work on PC, browser and iPhone games.
CEO Daniel James said his studio was “delighted and honored to have the opportunity to create an online game based on Doctor Who. Our goal with 'Words in Time' is to capture the imaginative spirit and depth of the series, whilst being fun and easy to play for all ages.”
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At best this is one of the few British owned IP's being sent overseas. One that has surely been funded by British tv licence payers? At worse this is an implication that there are no British dev's capable of delivering this project. Maybe the issue is cost etc but whatever the reason is I would be interested to hear it.
Did they even tender it out to UK Publishers and Developers? This all looks pretty shadey. I hope they are getting a large royalty and have done a striaght royalty deal I will be disgusted if any UK tax payers money is being spent in the US.
I find it deplorable, the BEEB ships such a title and tender overseas. It feels like a slap in the UK developer face by handing it overseas. Surely, the best folks who understand the Dr.Who franchie, fine nuance of the British humour, wit and dialogue are British.
It smacks of the cost cutting and bottom dollar that is all the BEEB has seen, and in this case Auntie does NOT know best. I want my license fee back!@
I'm frankly appalled by this, but I think the BBC should at least explain to the UK industry why they did this. Can Develop get some answers from them? They seem to be keeping very quiet about it so far...
Maybe they should take a leaf out of C4's book...
