NBC Universal + Sierra Online (Vivendi Games): Battlestar Galactica on Xbox Live Arcade

Being a quasi-smart nerd afficionado myself, I too enjoy sci-fi space series. And Battlestar is by far my favorite in that genre. But while I’m excited to see this game come to live, it reeks of opportunism experiment.

Essentially a FPS, the game will be jam-packed with “likenesses” of the show as well as its atmosphere: “The game will feature sound effects from the show, including weapons firing, and Kispert said they’re talking about incorporating radio chatter from the show that could feature cast voices.”

Sure, the ambience of the show is awesome. But I’m not sure if that’s enough to just reproduce the same thing in game space. Frankly, the ‘innovative’ dimension seems somewhat thin: says Bill Kispert, vp interactive of NBC Universal, “We wanted to bring a more intense combat experience to gamers. From a story standpoint, fans will be able to relive key battles from the first two seasons of the show, and then we’ll add new content and missions outside of that.”

My thought is that rather than putting out some cool parallel-running narratives, it’s an excuse to experiment with the imminent concept of episodic gaming.

Kispert said Xbox Live Arcade could become a new way for the studio to reach out to audiences from other shows. He said he likes the notion of using Xbox Live Arcade with several of NBC Universal’s TV properties because it allows the studio to deliver episodic or short gaming content quickly and efficiently to a large fan base. The “Galactica” game will have a one-year development cycle for this fall’s game.

Ed Zobrist, president of Sierra Online, said the great thing about digitally distributed content is that it can constantly be updated, in this case with new ships, story lines, multiplayer maps and missions.

“Digital distribution allows Hollywood licensors the ability to work with game makers and turn around content to capitalize on a show’s success, providing timely content without a lot of lead time,” he said. “Moving forward, we’ll be able to add game content via multiple delivery methods to provide new content that’s topical to what’s going on in the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ universe for seasons to come.”