Law and Order games?

How interesting.

http://www.lawandorderlagames.com/

The press release reads as such:
Telltale and NBCUniversal Partnering to Fight Crime with
“Law & Order: LA” Games

New Games Coming in 2011 for PC, Mac, Console and Mobile


SAN RAFAEL, CA. – April 18, 2011 – Telltale Games, the leading independent digital publisher and developer of episodic interactive entertainment, and Universal Partnerships & Licensing today announced an expansion of its relationship to include games based on the newest installment of NBCUniversal’s popular “Law & Order” franchise over multiple years. Telltale’s first episodic game series based on “Law & Order: LA” is expected to release in 2011 for PC, Mac, console, mobile and tablets. The partnership expansion also includes rights for integrated social media applications. “Law & Order: LA” is licensed through NBCUniversal Television Consumer Products.

TV’s longest-running crime series and consistently top rated “Law & Order” franchise combines bracing ripped-from-the-headlines storytelling with the distinctive backdrop of different law enforcement units. As the newest addition to the brand, “Law & Order: LA” performed as one of the most successful new shows for 2010, increasing viewership from the prior year for the same timeslot by over 60%. “Law & Order: LA” airs on Mondays on NBC 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

“Law Order: Los Angeles” follows Detectives Ricardo Morales (Alfred Molina, "An Education," "The Da Vinci Code," "Spiderman 2") and Tomas “TJ” Jaruszalski (Corey Stoll, "Midnight in Paris") as they pursue cases through the diverse City of Angels. As members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s elite Robbery Homicide Division, Morales, a former Deputy District Attorney, has returned to the police force after he became frustrated with the system, while TJ, who grew up the son of an Oscar-winning Polish cinematographer, knows too well the dark underside that is behind-the-scenes Hollywood. Protecting the detectives who serve under her is Lieutenant Arleen Gonzales (Rachel Ticotin, "Man on Fire"), who is driven, focused, and meticulous. Deputy District Attorney Jonah “Joe” Dekker (Terrence Howard, "Crash," "Hustle & Flow") is a white knight crusader whose political ambitions often bring him into conflict with his boss, working with Deputy District Attorney Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza, "Law & Order") at his side.

With the “Law & Order: LA” games, Telltale will build from the experience and expertise cultivated through numerous seasons of police and crime procedural games over the years. The “Law & Order: LA” games will take the crime solving
focus to interrogation and criminal investigations, with a heavy dose of courtroom drama on each case. Telltale will also continue to advance its unique approach to cinematic presentation and storytelling as well as dialog and character interactions.

“’Law & Order: LA” fits very well with the style of episodic entertainment experiences Telltale has been building since our very first days,” said Telltale co-founder and CEO Dan Connors. “The talents and skills that we’ve been building at Telltale are ideally suited for the structure and storytelling approach of televised procedurals like ‘Law & Order.’”
“We have been extremely pleased with our alliance with Telltale Games, and are excited to add a new series to our relationship with games based on Law & Order: LA,” said Bill Kispert, VP & GM, Digital Platforms, Universal Partnerships & Licensing. “Telltale’s attention to the details and nuances of the source material in the games they develop, combined with the drama of their episodic storytelling, is a combination that game-playing fans of the ‘Law & Order’ franchise will love.”

Telltale has opened up registration to sign up for timely information and updates at http://www.lawandorderlagames.com. Telltale will release more information on the “Law & Order: LA” games in the coming months.

About “Law & Order: LA”
The newest addition to the “Law & Order” brand, “Law & Order: Los Angeles” fuses the classic ripped- from-the-headlines storytelling with the distinctive backdrop of LA - delving into the unique attitudes, cultures and crimes of the West Coast. The drama stars Alfred Molina, Terrence Howard, Corey Stoll, Rachel Ticotin and Alana de la Garza.

“Law & Order: LA” is a Wolf Films production in association with Universal Media Studios. Wolf is creator and executive producer. Also serving as executive producers are Rene Balcer, Blake Masters, Christopher Misiano and Peter Jankowski.

For “Law & Order: LA” embeddable clips and full episodes, visit NBC.com's official show site: http://www.nbc.com/law-and-order-los-angeles/

About Universal Partnerships & Licensing
UP&L oversees Universal’s consumer product licensing, film and home entertainment promotions, and all corporate alliances for Universal’s theatrical, home entertainment, theme parks and stage productions. This dedicated division is also responsible for monetizing the Studio’s vast library of films and characters through licensing, branding and marketing opportunities. UP&L is part of NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

About NBCUniversal Television DVD, Music, And Consumer Products Group
NBCUniversal is a leader in providing entertainment programming to the domestic and international marketplaces. NBCUniversal Television DVD, Music, and Consumer Products Group manages all global ancillary television business endeavors for the NBCUniversal Television Group, including third-party home entertainment distribution, consumer products, musical soundtracks, special markets projects and the NBCUniversal Online Store.

About Telltale, Inc.
Telltale is a leading independent digital publisher of interactive stories playable on every major gaming platform. Telltale is also the pioneer of episodic delivery of content developing games as series and successfully releasing on a schedule to create a longer consumer engagement for each release. Founded in 2004 by LucasArts veterans with decades of experience, Telltale has quickly become an industry leader, establishing the model for successful episodic game creation and digital publishing. Telltale has sold more than 3.5 million episodes since 2005. Telltale’s reputation for quality has been established across more than 25 published releases that have cumulatively earned an average Metacritic score above 80%. Telltale's titles have won numerous awards including, "Adventure Game of the Year" accolades from publications such as IGN, PC Gamer, GameSpy, and Adventure Gamers, and have been recognized by mainstream outlets ranging from USA Today, to The New York Times to Variety. Telltale currently develops and publishes episodic series on PlayStation(R) 3, PC, Mac, Wii (TM), Xbox 360 (TM) and iPad.




Anyways...thoughts guys? I for one am excited, but that's just me.

Comments

  • edited April 2011
    Wow, I wasn't expecting another game announcement so soon. I hope this will be a regular Telltale season, instead of the retail store-only CSI-games. I like having all my Telltale episodes on my game list here.

    I never watched Law & Order. Is the show any good?
  • edited April 2011
    Is this real!? or another joke cos I rly like this!

    EDIT
    It is real!! sweet!!! I can't wait!! I haven't seen Law and Order:LA. Iv seen Law and Order, SVU and Criminal Intent. Is LA any good? It proboly is since its from Law and Order.
  • edited April 2011
    It seems pretty legit. All these projects are giving me some happy thoughts and I hope they do it often! Though I wonder if this is going to be a CSI typed deal or legitament episodic.

    Watch it end up in Alan's Blog this week, just watch!

    Oh and look at the new sub-forum!
  • edited April 2011
    I don't know anything about Law & Order, but I just read that Jeff Goldblum was a regular on one of the spin-offs (not LA though). This is your second chance to get him in one of your games, Telltale! Do this for me, and I'll be yours forever.
  • edited April 2011
    coolsome wrote: »
    Is this real!? or another joke cos I rly like this!

    EDIT
    It is real!! sweet!!! I can't wait!! I haven't seen Law and Order:LA. Iv seen Law and Order, SVU and Criminal Intent. Is LA any good? It proboly is since its from Law and Order.
    Personally I think LA is the worst one of the franchise. But, if anyone can make a crappy Law & Order show into a great game, it's Telltale. Though, I may be slightly biased like lots of people, because they cancelled the original, after 20 years of airing, for a crappy version of it.
  • edited April 2011
    Don't really care for the tv show. I hope this doesn't affect the quality of the other games. Like many here have said, Back to the Future feels rushed.
  • edited April 2011
    Yeah, I'm really wondering whether Telltale isn't trying to juggle too many balls. This is a LOT of games to develop at once, and after the outcry over Back to the Future, I'm frankly not sure they can pull it off.
  • edited April 2011
    Seriously? All these licenses are just getting ridiculous now.
  • edited April 2011
    Enough.


    Just, enough.
  • edited April 2011
    Dear God. I'm really starting to worry about Telltale here.

    For starters, they're overworking themselves. This announcement means they'll be doing four episodic series in one year (BttF, Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead, Law and Order, and the only reason I'm not counting Fables and King's Quest is because they haven't stated release years yet), while previously they've never done more than two. This isn't even counting Puzzle Agent 2, Hector, and whatever other mini-projects they might be hiding. It's only natural for Telltale to produce more output as they grow as a company, but they're still pretty small (How many employees do you have now? I'm guessing still under 100), and taking on this many projects at once will probably just hurt all of their quality in the long run.

    I'm also questioning their choice of licenses. Now, I understand why Telltale almost exclusively does licensed games. Pre-existing names get more attention than original ones. Just about all of us discovered Telltale when we heard they were making a video game of (insert franchise you like here). SBCG4AP did that for me. But it seems like now that Telltale has grown to the point where they can attract fairly large licenses (earlier they had to work with whatever they could get. I love Homestar Runner and I loved SBCG4AP, but a game based on a Web cartoon probably doesn't look good on a resume) they're willing to adapt anything they can get their hands on. Stuff like Jurassic Park and The Walking Dead already doesn't strike me as very...Telltale-y, but Law and Order is really pushing it.

    And yes, I'm aware Telltale has done several CSI games, but at least those were Ubisoft-published. This is something Telltale's decided to do on their own.
  • edited April 2011
    For those wondering, Fables is confirmed Q1 2012 in the original press release.
  • edited April 2011
    they're willing to adapt anything they can get their hands on.

    This. And I believe this is the recipe for disaster.
  • edited April 2011
    Ribs wrote: »
    For those wondering, Fables is confirmed Q1 2012 in the original press release.

    Well that's good, at least.
  • edited April 2011
    I like that TT is doing something more "drama/thriller". With a good story (just one going through the whole season) it will be a fantastic game.
    I just hope that the game will not be as ridiculous and boring as CSI games... even the latest one is so childish, with some of the more miserable graphic TT ever made.
  • edited April 2011
    I'm really happy about the Law and Order game being announced. I haven't seen LA but I know Law and Order is a great series and it will be all new to me as well.
  • edited April 2011
    Quality over quantity, Telltale. Sheesh.
  • edited April 2011
    I wonder why they didn't go with Law & Order: SVU .. That is the most popular of the L&O franchises these days...
  • edited April 2011
    Cool. I'm a fan of the Law & Order series. I never saw the 'LA' series, but I do watch 'SVU' and 'CI' series, all 3 of them are good. I hope Telltale does a good job with this game.
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