The last bit of news we got was that 505 Games, a publisher largely known for... nothing whatsoever here in the States, would be publishing the title. Up until this point, the company seems to be a PAL territory version of D3 or Majesco or something, handling publishing and distribution for a lot of smaller games like Cooking Mama, Harvest Moon, and the Simple 2000 series of budget games. The company recently opened a US branch.
So, we all sort of joked about the Michael Phelps game and talked about how swimming games are awful, so the game should be some sort of ridiculous over-the-top action game. While 505 hasn't come out and said what the game will be, Kotaku's got this quote...
“Swimming will be a part of it, but it won’t be set in an Olympic pool going back and forth,” said Adam Kline, president of 505 Games, the company releasing the series. “This is a pure action game.”
Well OK then! Martial arts-focused swimming game in which Phelps uses his NASA-designed swimsuit to fight crime confirmed? Yeah, I've got nothing here other than to say that it's probably smart that they're not making a swimming game.
Then there's this:
“We will spend a very pretty penny in marketing this project because it’s important to us,” Kline said. “We believe it’s the next Tiger Woods project. ... It could be here for the next 10 years.”
Not to point out the obvious, but Tiger Woods is a golfer. And the games he stars in? Golf games. They call that a "slam dunk" in the business of doing business, folks. Taking a swimmer guy who has sort of already started to fade from our collective memory and getting him to star in some sort of game that isn't all about the thing he became famous for isn't anything like what EA's done with Tiger.
So left with these details, I can only conclude that this game will be one to watch for 2009. Not necessarily because I believe in the game's quality, but because if the publisher is already making these types of wild statements with nothing to show for it, imagine the nonsense they'll start spewing when they actually have a game to show. Can't wait.