Richard Branson and Virgin making a comeback in the video games industry at E3?!That’s right, one of the UK’s most influential entrepreneurs has once again decided to throw his hat back in the video games market. “Once again?” you may ask? Well back in the year 1984 (when I was born) Branson saw the potential for computer software to expand as a global entertainment business and thus Virgin Games was born.
Virgin Interactive (it should be noted they went through many name changes) were responsible for some of the more high profile games, especially for the Mega Drive and PC; Global Gladiators (1992), The 7th Guest (1992), Disney's Aladdin (1993), Cannon Fodder (1993), Cool Spot (1993), The Lion King (1994), Walt Disney's The Jungle Book (1994), Command & Conquer (1995), Broken Sword (1996) and Resident Evil (1996) were either developed and published by Virgin.
After a good run, Virgin decided to shy away from the video games industry for a while and concentrate in other avenues – mainly online and digital.
Now, Mr Branson has recognised the potential in the video games industry again and at E3 the whole world will find out what role Virgin will be playing in this exciting and developing industry.
According to MCV, the rumour of Virgin’s re-entry into the video game industry is that: “Global entrepreneur will use E3 to announce details of online-only games service - and opportunities for developers...The new gaming service rumoured to launch at E3 will seek partnerships with leading publishers and content owners, offering new and unique opportunities.”
Take from that what you will. To me it sounds like a PC version of Apple’s App store and a rival to Google Chrome Store (which should be released this year).
For Train2Game, this looks like another platform for where they can showcase their games thus gaining more exposure and chances to become bigger and more successful.
I wonder if there were any games from Virgin that inspired any Train2Game students or at the very least have fond memories of? For me, their best games were Earthworm Jim, Mick and Mack: Global Gladiators and Cool Spot.
What do you think about this? Send me your comments below.
Click here to read the full story on Branson’s return to the industry: http://www.develop-online.net/news/34877/Richard-Branson-returns-to-video-games
