Electronic Arts has inked a deal with Fox allowing the publisher to create multiple videogames based around the reasonably well-known cartoon series. Apparently, development duties will be handled by EA's LA studio, previously responsible for From Russia With Love, Lord of The Rings: Tactics, The Godfather and The Sims games.
According to the press release, the dev team will be, "working closely with the television studio's Licensing and Merchandising division, Gracie Films, and The Simpsons writers" - although just how closely remains to be seen. We've already heard about how Peter Jackson felt locked out of EA's Lord of the Rings conversions, allegedly taking King Kong to Ubi Soft as a result. Do international licensing deals really come about as a result of creative sulks? We can only hope that they do.
The press release continues:
"The first game of the multi-game deal will be launched on next generation systems; no launch date has been announced. 'This is a great opportunity for our talented development team to collaborate with the brilliant minds of THE SIMPSONS to bring original Simpsons material to videogame fans,' said Nick Earl, Vice President and General Manager, EA Redwood Shores Studio. 'This is something EA's been interested in for years and now game development and technology is at a place where THE SIMPSONS characters and world will really come alive in these games.'"
Full marks there for using the word 'game' in the first line (twice!), rather than 'product', 'franchise' or 'entertainment experience'. As for the form that the first EA Simpsons title is likely to take, I'm opening the betting thus:
Medal of Honor-style FPS - 25/1 Lord of the Rings-style battle tactics - 10/1 Sims-style virtual soap opera - 3/1 Free-roaming driving adventure - Evens
