As Warner Bros recently did with Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, Paramount have announced they are self-publishing a game straight onto PSN. They have developed a game based on the new Star Trek film and have taken the decision not to make a traditional retail release.
The game, titled Star Trek D-A-C, is described by Paramount as a “fast-paced, top-down action shooter inspired by the new J.J. Abrams’ motion picture”, allowing us to “experience epic space battles, featuring a variety of playable ships, including the all new U.S.S. Enterprise.”
Paramount list the game’s features as
- 12 person multiplayer co-op – Teams of up to 6 players battle against each other
- 3 gameplay modes and detailed Stat Tracking
- 3 ship classes for each side: Flagship, bomber, and fighter – each with its own unique capabilities
- Variety of powerups and special pickups
- Single player mode – Play against AI or online
Is it just me, or does the “12 person multiplayer co-op”, sound more like typical online multiplayer rather than what we think of as co-op. You can imagine the conversation at Paramount HQ:
“Market research says gamers want co-op modes in the games they play.”
“Well, in our game they can co-operate with team mates to fight other players.”
“Great! We’ll say our game has co-op.”
Due for release in “May” on Xbox LIVE, the game will also be released on PSN and PC, though all Paramount have said for those platforms is that game is “coming soon”. However, MCV are reporting that the PSN release is also due “next month”. They also say that the price of the game will be “around £10”.
This is just the first of a number of digital-only releases from Paramount this year, as we can also expect games based on Top Gun, The Warriors and Days Of Thunder. This does not signal the end of third-party games derived from Paramount Picture’s IP. John Kavanagh, Paramount’s Senior VP of Video Games, has promised that this does not reduce licensing opportunities for its third-party games distribution partners. Adding, “where we think it appropriate, we would consider doing a big movie franchise online ourselves, but we’re still very keen to keep working with our publishing partners.”
So the next few weeks will bring on a veritable geek-gasm for PlayStation owning Star Trek fans. First on April 23rd, as reported in our forums, fans will be able to run around in PlayStation Home wearing their favourite colour Trek uniform bought from the Threads Store. My tip, avoid red shirts. Then in May there is the release of the new film and, if MCV are right about its release date, the PSN game.
