Rumor: Microsoft Wants The Little Prince
In her newest rumor round-up, Surfer Girl says that some of her French sources have revealed that Microsoft is trying hard to get exclusivity rights to a game based on The Little Prince. For those unfamiliar, the original novella was written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry in 1943, and has been adapted several times, including a Japanese anime version which aired on in North America in the 1980's. Check out a bit of it here, and don't let the aggressively "French" narrator frighten you.
The story involves a little boy living on an asteroid who falls in love with a rose and eventually examines humanity with an outsider's eye - a plot that's just begging to be turned into an shooter. According to Surfer Girl, the license for the game is held by MKO games, although it doesn't appear that any substantial information about the game has been released. If this is true, it's likely an attempt by Microsoft to bolster the Xbox 360's reputation among European families looking for quality kid's games.
Also in her post, SG mentions that we can expect the new Prince of Persia to feel at least a little like Okami, Propaganda Games (creators of the latest Turok) are working on an Oblivian-ish RPG, and Double Helix, the company formed by The Collective/Shiny merger, have a "high profile comic book title" in the works.
Well come on, well come on [Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 4 May 2008
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: microsoft, mko games, rumor, surfer girl, the little prince, xbox 360
Grrrr... Microsoft! No! Bad Dog! Don't touch my childhood! And no shooters please!
This was my favorite book. My parents always used to read this to me when I went to sleep. That and "The Hobbit".
Also, food for thoughts here, before France had the Euros for money, on the 50 Francs bill, you could see the little prince on his lil'planet. And Antoine de Saint Exupéry was knighted like gosh, fifty times! So add a "Sieur" to that name please!
And I use to watch this show! In french though... It's way more diferent then the book i tell you...
Man i'm a nerd ;(
I'm so excited about this! A game based on The Litte Prince could be amazing, if they really dig into the source material. It's equally likely they could simply pillage the aesthetic and create something shallow and junky. Here's hoping they really tap into the soul of the story and deliver on the immense potential of the property.
I'm feeling a bit torn about it. As a French major and lit nerd I'm inclined to say its "essence" would just never quite translate to the video game medium...but then I still might be tempted to check it out, for the sake of curiosity.
After reading this, I went to a friends house, and on his kitchen table he had "The Little Prince" on VHS, at first I wondered if it was the same, but the blue coat and sword game it away.
"Microsoft" and "The Little Prince" should never be uttered in the same sentence.
Ever.
There were already two great games based on the Little Prince - Mario Galaxy and Katamari Damacy.