The late King of Pop will soon be set to star in his very own MMO. Seriously.
There’s something ironic in the fact that pop singer Michael Jackson’s career is the healthiest it’s been in a long time, more than a year after his death. At this past E3, Ubisoft announced a Michael Jackson-themed music game, which seems like a perfectly natural fit for the musician, no?
Today, another MJ game reared its head: Planet Michael, an upcoming … MMO?
No, I’m being serious here. Planet Michael, which bills itself as “The Ultimate Michael Jackson Online Game” (a fierce field of competition, I know), asks players to enter “a world inspired by the King of Pop’s enduring artistry and heart. Make yourself a home on Planet Michael where old and new friends can appreciate the magic of his music and his commitment to spreading messages of love and peace.”
Again, I swear I’m not making any of this up.
Still, developer SEE Virtual Worlds knows that it will catch some flak for this. “There is no doubt we will be open to people joking about it and criticizing it. We’ll just have to roll with that as it comes, so to speak,” developer Josh Gordon told USA Today. “[Michael Jackson’s] such a big name and he’s such a big legend that no matter what we do, we are going to get a lot of people who are excited, and we are going to get people who criticize us. And we have just taken that as the way it is going to be.”
The game will take place in locales inspired by Jackson’s songs (like “Thriller” and “Billie Jean”) and have gamers working to overcome challenges through the power of song and dance rather than violence.
So I guess it’ll be kind of like Elite Beat Agents, then.
(Via Destructoid and Eurogamer)
Published: Sep 21, 2010 03:02 pm