Left Behind Games Tenuously Clutching At Asian Straws
You may recall that we've covered the Christian game publisher/developer Left Behind Games before - most recently for pasting defensive comments all over anyone's blog which has mentioned their allegedly terrible Christian RTS based on the best-selling series of Rapture-themed books. Sigh.
Anyhow, the latest indignity comes in the form of a Christian Post article about the game, titled 'Left Behind Games to Reach Out to Asia Ahead of Olympics'. In it, the reporter Kevin Jackson summarizes huffily: "The gamemakers are marketing the title as a nonviolent alternative to help Asians better communicate with Westerners - a premise that many Christians would agree is false."
I know there's controversy within the Christian community about the game, and I'm not sure Jackson has quite done his homework here: "Left Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game, much like the popular World of Warcraft"? Oops. But overall, the Christian Post looks correctly quizzical at some pretty ridiculous statements in the piece: "[Left Behind Games' sales consultant] Chiu also noted the prospect of success in Asia in his statement. He said: “With the movie The Da Vinci Code doing phenomenally in Asia, the game Eternal Forces would be very well received"" Oh... kay.
Left Behind Games is not, it appears, doing too well, despite the controversy - its first post-launch financial results revealed a $4.1 million loss for the quarter in which the game was launched - ouch. And if they're sending out press releases like 'Left Behind Games Concludes First Transaction in Australia', I'm not sure things are looking much better.
On the other hand, they have licensed Big Huge Games' RTS engine for the next (post-expansion) game in the Left Behind series, so one would imagine that would help clear up the gameplay issues a little bit - the Rise Of Nations series is purdy. But considering they only announced the license in November 2006, it'll take a while for the game based on it to come down the pipe. Maybe the real Rapture will help the company to profitability? [Via J-Dob.]
Comments
There is a thing in right-wing politics in America that the left-wing calls 'wingnut welfare.' Basically, a bunch of rich wacko 'born-again' Christians who inherited their money and have done nothing useful with their lives (sound familiar? *cough*Bush*cough*) put up tons of their trust-fund (and later actual inherited) money to advance right-wing causes or people, whether or not said causes or people are truly Christian in nature.
I suspect this is happening with the Left Behind stuff. It's just not that good on it's own. The company is likely to be financially supported forever, no matter how much money they lose.
Posted by: Kazaam | March 17, 2007 6:11 PM