Some Pleasant Game Updates

Looks like a Suda/Grasshopper game, for sure.

A couple really nice bits of info came around today.  Warner Bros. has announced they're localizing Lollipop Chainsaw in the west, and not only that, but they're throwing some real talent (and money) behind it.  James Gunn, who was a writer on such movies as Slither, Dawn of the Dead (the remake), and uhh.....Scooby-Doo (The live action movies) will apparently have a hand in the Western version of the script (Or, perhaps the script in general; the game isn't due out in Japan until sometime in 2012, so...) to ensure it's got a nice bit of cult humor for American audiences.  (Really, though, San Romero High School; I imagine the game would've done fine without him.  It's certainly an interesting experiment at least, as we'll see how a 'pro' affects a video game story!)

It's actually a pretty welcoming thing, however; just a couple weeks ago when it was announced, I worried on whether or not it would see a release over here, thinking we would have to wait far closer to the game's Japanese release to hear word.  So that's quite a bit of fear assuaged there.  I don't have to peruse articles of the game wondering if or when I'd be able to play it myself because it just hadn't been announced outside of Japan.  Now I get to be all giddy about the game when new news comes out for it!  (So, more information on it is welcome anytime now!)

Update!:  It turns out that James Gunn started working on Lollipop Chainsaw's story last year.  As in, he has already had his hands deep in the project and helped flesh out the base story, characters and such.  So, his brand of the cult humor and such might already be what we've seen, and not the other way around.  That's just really neat, I guess, that Warner Bros. had faith in the game a year ago and still quite obviously do.

I like this picture because the dude in the middle is -fucked-.

The other big surprise that came out today was that Squeenix up and bought True Crime: Hong Kong.  Way back during the Great Activision Purge, many games felt the blade of the axe of cancellation.  One among them was True Crime, and it was arguably the most surprising cut of the bunch, since, well, the game seemed nearly done.  It was getting magazine features, had preview-builds up, advertising and all that jazz, well on its way to being a game proper.  I suppose the sentiment was shared throughout game players and developers alike, as, despite Activision's harsh words for the game, Squeenix London was more than happy to pick up the game and take it by the hand.

The unfortunate(?) part of the ordeal is that, technically, True Crime:  Hong Kong is still dead.  Squeenix seemed a little more interested in the game and not the, er, 'pedigree' of the series, and as such only bought the game and not the IP rights to the True Crime franchise.  So, whatever SEL does with the game, it'll end up having a shiny new name attached to it on top of, what I imagine, some script and design changes.  SEL does have one big advantage in all this, in that they can give the game what Activision never could - hope bordering on blind faith.  SEL oversees Rocksteady and the makers of Just Cause 2, Avalanche studios, so it's not inconceivable to imagine that special brand of fun might just make its way into whatever True Crime turns into.  I guess it more depends on how well SEL can manage United Front Games.

Still, it's a positive note, both stories are even.  It's pretty easy to get a bit cynical about the industry, after all, so when you get stories like this of developers/companies just doing "cool" things that, in all honesty might not pay off, you can't help but cheer them on for trying.  I know I will be (though I'm sure I don't have to say that, after gushing about Lollipop Chainsaw for two out of two blog posts mentioning it), and with any luck, both companies really get behind their games in the marketing/advertising department to make them really known and get buys that they might not have otherwise.