Playboy knows boobs will never get old, regardless of medium. But it hasn't been behind the wheel of a videogame just yet. That's about to change this year, as Playboy magazine has announced plans to launch its own games label. It has also revealed a partnership with Bigpoint Games, an MMOG distributor, as well as the first fruits of the budding relationship, a Grand Theft Auto knock-off called Poisonville.
Playboy has become rather active in our little neck of the woods of late. 2K Games' Mafia II prominently features in-game Playboy magazines that you can view at your leisure. Capcom's upcoming Dead Rising 2 has magazines as well, though they have more of a utilitarian purpose as they provide stat boosts similar to the books in the original Dead Rising.
Consider these appearances first steps to the full-on sponsorship that has been revealed today. But don't necessarily believe this is Playboy''s expression of a passion to make solid games. The Playboy marketing gurus coolly remind us in the announcement press release that this new label is all about "meeting the needs" the magazine's demographic based on feedback received.
I think this is where you buy guns in Poisonville. Maybe. == TEASER ==And while it's unspecified if this new label will only be a browser-based MMOG front for the magazine, Playboy is willing to divulge that "more high quality, development partnerships [will be announced] in the coming months."
You can view a trailer for Poisonville just below. It's an MMOG that drops you in a battered metropolis, riddled with the taint of gangs and violence. You'll be asked to be a nice guy and do missions in "order to counteract corruption," gain respect, and "rebuild" reputations. Driving is confirmed, as well as PVP and gang warfare. Also, huge explosions and "Playboy-caliber women."
The game is supposedly in open beta, and I suppose you could access said beta through Playboy's website, a page that also currently offers live nude chats and all sorts of NSFW stuff. Knock yourself out.
So the game will be full of platinum blonde sex-dolls whose every inch was crafted by a lonely single man with mother-issues and Photoshopped to a high blur? Thanks, but if I want titillation I'll just rewatch that scene in Final Fantasy VII where Tifa's in the shower. There's a curtain in front of her, but if you squint and tilt your head just right...it's still more interesting than this "game" from Playboy.
I have a feeling this will have far less boobs than the playboy name would lead you to believe. That trailer was not much in the way of sex appeal. Looks pretty lame graphically as well. Then again MMO's aren't exactly the best looking thing anyway, cause you need that power for networking, but still.
The video doesn't look like its actual game play... More like a animation thats suppose to look like a video game. What ever happened to keeping it simple and just making some rhythm sex games? Doing GTA seems like to big of a project for them.
WOW, Playboy, thank you for making it even harder to get rid of the loser/sleazehole gamer stereotype, for making gaming more inaccessible for self-respecting women and for unwittingly leading a parade of hole-filling-crazed anti-feminists into our already objectification-riddled world. My only consolation is that the low quality of your video games, if not our sense of decency and our love and respect for the women in our lives, will surely bring you down in these misguided endeavors.
I don't understand why people sink so much money and time into projects like this that EVERYONE knows is stupid and full of fail. I mean, who are the jackasses saying "no, this will totally be a hit!" and green lighting the funding?
This is going to be pretty bad. Usually a CGI representation of a game is suppose to throw you through a hoop, but this one looks like some PS2/Xbox/Cube game. Yuck.
Playboy hasn't been a valid source or porn or even fap worthy swag in a long long time...I just wanted to post that. as for the game, the past what? 1 game playboy created sucked, I don't expect more this time.
With the expansion of the internet granting access to all sorts of nudity for every particular taste, Playboy has become irrelevant in the 21st century. I see this as an attempt to work their way back into the mindset of young males, but I doubt it will have any lasting effect. This crappy GTA/Saints Row clone isn't going to be anything anyone plays for long. If Playboy wants to seriously make games, then they need to take an original approach and not just reskin other popular franchises with their label. They did that with The Sims and it failed and now they are doing it again with the open world GTA style genre. I believe a spy game would be a better pick. The "playboy" life style is similar to that of the suave super-spy life style from James Bond and even Austin Powers and it would offer a better opportunity for lots of hot polygonal girls to scamper about.
I kinda got interested in the playboy game for a minute there, but i really don't like MMOs. ah well. Here's hoping they get into the console game business, it might be interesting if they made some games with a narative focus. it'd be funny if they subverted everyone's expectations.
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