Rufus Hound is seen as a future star in the world of comedy; an upcoming talent who can be seen on Celebrity Juice and Argumental and for Sport Relief did an entertaining parody of Cheryl Cole. He’s also going to be the host for the 2010 Develop Industry Excellence Awards.Celebrities aren’t shy to get involved with the games industry.
The best recent examples of this are Lionhead Studio’s Fable II and III. Stephen Fry (OI, Harry Potter, Blackadder and Jeeves & Wooster) and Julia Sawalha (Chicken Run, Absolutely Fabulous and Jonathan Creek) lent their voices for the second instalment of Fable. The third instalment sees the return Fry while John Cleese and Charlie Brooker makes their debut. Stephen Fry was also the narrative voice behind Media Molecules LittleBigPlanet, the PlayStation 3 game that personifies the Sony’s motto of “Play, Create, Share” for their console.
Another game that got the celebrity treatment was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which featured Samuel L. Jackson, Ice T, James Woods, Danny Dyer and Chris Penn
Other notable actors to be have lent their talents to the industry: Liam Neeson (Fallout 3, Star Wars series), Ricky Gervais (Grand Theft Auto IV, Scarface: The World Is Yours), Jack Black (Brutal Legend, King Kong), Vin Diesel (The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Wheelman) and Michael Ironside (Spinter Cell Series, Timeshift, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars).
Vin Diesel even has his own video game studio, Tigon Studios, who have released three games to date - http://www.tigonstudios.com/index2.htm
Train2Game itself has recently had the pleasure of working with a well known celebrity figure in technology circles, The Gadget Show presenter Suzi Perry to promote our new Games Art and Animation course. Read more about Suzi Perry here.
The fact that celebrities have no problem being involved with video games is proof that the video game and entrainment industry are converging more and more.
What do you think about this? Send me your comments below.
Click here to read the story on Rufus Hound hosting the 2010 Develop Awards - http://www.develop-online.net/news/34888/Rufus-Hound-to-host-Develop-Awards
