What’s up with this? I thought Creative had the contract to do ancient battles on television using its Total War engine, but now I see this: Great Battles of Rome, Slitherine Software
I realize this is a reverse situation–i.e. Slitherine will be including History Channel footage in its game rather than vice versa–but it just seems odd that two directly competing game companies have teamed up with the same cable TV company. Anybody know anything about this? (Sorry, I forgot to search before posting, so if this has been mentioned here before, mea culpa.)
This is essentially Slitherine’s “Legion Arena” repackaged with clips from The History Channel. Slitherine wasn’t happy with the penetration they had in the US market with Legion Arena (it was rated M because of the tiny, pixellated penises on Gallic warriors) , so they pulled it from American distribution very quickly. They hope that the History Channel label will get them a little more leverage.
Thanks for the reply, Troy, but that begs the question: if penises were the problem, what does the History Channel connection do to remedy that situation? Are they removing the penises and adding the footage? I imagine that must be it.
I think so. Penises were part of the problem, but not the only one. I got the sense that they were let down by their North American publisher (Paradox) and that they wanted a greater retail presence. They pulled the game themselves from North American shelves pretty quickly - I got a chance to review it, but I don’t think it was available for very long.
As for what the History Channel gets out of this, I think its part of their gaming cross-promotion. It seems like everything has a History Channel relationship somewhere. Medieval II and Caesar IV shipped with History documentaries, they’ve partnered with quite a few Civil War game makers…I don’t think anyone sees Slitherine as a real competitor to Creative Assembly, and it’s not like the History Channel can’t partner with both.
I spoke to the Slitherine guys at GDC and they think that this partnership will give them the publicity they need to get a publisher for their fantasy battles version of Legion Arena.
No, it’s not so much that. It’s more that both companies are offering similar styled games based upon the same general era of warfare, with the name “Rome” or “Roman” prominent in each. I’d think Creative would get kind of hot under the collar at the possibility that a consumer might mistake a Slitherine game for theirs. My own first reaction, upon seeing a game about Roman warfare that bore the History Channel logo was, “What the hell is this? An add-on for Rome: Total War?” But I guess in the end Creative has no say in the matter unless they’ve signed an exclusive with THC. I just imagine them being a little upset by the situation.
I spoke to the Slitherine guys at GDC and they think that this partnership will give them the publicity they need to get a publisher for their fantasy battles version of Legion Arena.
