Last week, we brought you updated news about the partnership between television network Syfy and gaming giant THQ to develop games and television projects that coordinated with each other. Saturday’s Syfy Original Movie Red Faction: Origins, based on the Red Faction gaming frachise by THQ, and this week’s release of THQ’s Red Faction: Armageddon for PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 is the first of what many hope will be a string of collaborations.
Hot on the heels of those releases comes the announcement by Syfy that another, similar development project going with Trion Worlds has now produced a playable (at E3, behind closed doors, but still) game that will be truly interactive with a television series. It’s called Defiance, and will be an open world MMO on the gaming side, and a Syfy series on the television side. I’m excited about the television side because the series is set to be written by Rockne O’Bannon (Warehouse 13, Alien Nation, seaQuest DSV, Farscape, and one of my favorite episodes of the rebooted Twilight Zone).
Here’s what Syfy had to say about it in their press release:
Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a “AAA” console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.
Trion’s outline of how it will work, as set out on its Defiance website, is even more intriguing:
In a first-of-its-kind partnership, Trion and Syfy are collaborating on a massive event that will launch Defiance simultaneously as a global television program on Syfy and an MMO from Trion. In an entertainment first, the game and show will influence and depend on each other, and even feature some players’ characters on the TV shows as extras.
Take a look at the teaser trailer for the game below. It’s literally a teaser in that it doesn’t divulge much of anything, except for its post-apocalyptic nature.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhF5_UfWT_Y[/youtube]
How cool is that? No date was given for when this is all going live, but we’ll certainly let you know as soon as we hear anything. Good luck to Syfy and to Trion and kudos to them for moving ahead with this concept.
