BBC making games

By Games Industry.biz Published 6 August, 2007

Media boss gets excited.

The BBC is set to make a significant return to the videogame market, with new media boss Simon Nelson expected to be planning the big reveal at next week's Edinburgh Interactive Festival, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.

Nelson is due to deliver his keynote on Tuesday 14, to discuss how games will become part of the BBC's new media portfolio, and what the corporation has to learn from the videogames business.

The BBC currently offers games via the CBBC and CBeebies channels, as well as flash games on various key-brand web channels.

Last month it launched an on-demand TV service via the iPlayer, allowing users to download and view TV content. According to the Scotland on Sunday report, this service may extend to a games offering.

Simon Nelson has been credited with expanding BBC brands on digital platforms including DAB digital radio, the internet, digital television and mobiles.

Last week it was revealed that Eidos will be publishing a game based on the BBC's Dr. Who, in development at Ironstone Partners.

Forget games, read news. There's plenty of it on GamesIndustry.biz.

Picture of Games.

About Games Industry.biz

Read more articles from Games by visiting the Games Industry.biz archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (36) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • afghan_jones #1 5 years ago

    didnt they make a shit game based on that virtual fighting robat wars thing they did a while back?

  • mattigan #2 5 years ago

    I for one would like to see more games aimed at a more British/European demographic.

  • Turambar #3 5 years ago

    Eastenders the game? How dull.

  • Inquisitor #4 5 years ago

    Life on mars point and click.

  • the_dudefather #5 5 years ago

    lol fightbox

  • jonnyreb #6 5 years ago

    Does anyone else remember the days when you could download BBC Model B computer games off Teletext enabled tellies? Page 800 on Ceefax if my memory still works :)

    They were all either crap or didn't work....still, I thought it was really cool 'Back in the Day' as Beyonce would say.
    Edited by 2 at 06/08/07 @ 12:30

  • DanWhitehead #7 5 years ago

    They already made an Eastenders game for the Speccy back in 1987. One of the weirdest games ever.

    And let's not forget the Grange Hill adventure game, where you had to get Gonch's Walkman back. You even got to say "NO" to an evil drug pusher.

  • HiddenAway #8 5 years ago

    I won a trophy for Fightbox :D

  • afghan_jones #9 5 years ago

    They should definitely make an eastenders game. it would be ace.

    darts and pool minigames in the Queen Vic, fixing cars with Phil in the arches, catfighting with the Slaters, driving away from the square in a taxi as the credits music kicks in, all good stuff.

  • Monkey_Puncher #10 5 years ago

    I've got my fingers crossed for Only Fools and Horses Theft Auto!

    Or maybe a Mario Party style game based on Last of the Summer Wine. With fun mini games such as stealing Nora Batty's bloomers or guiding that blind guy with the jamjar specs across a busy road.

    So many possibilities....
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/07 @ 12:40

  • afghan_jones #11 5 years ago

    @monkey_puncher


    dont forget racing down a hill in a bath!

  • The_Inquisitor #12 5 years ago

    I'm sure the BBC views games as a primarily children’s pursuit. I won't be expecting anything worthwhile from them.

  • kangarootoo #13 5 years ago

    Didn't pretty much every episode of Last of the Summer Wine end with someone rolling down a hill in a comedy fashion, often rolling past a car full of old ladies who would then give disapproving looks or make an "ooooo" shape with their mouths?

  • Razz #14 5 years ago

    /keeps stum

  • ruttyboy #15 5 years ago

    "My Little Flufties"

  • afghan_jones #16 5 years ago

    @kanga

    Yes.

    They also usually started that way. If you were lucky the middle bit would be different and usually involve the one that looked like a tramp trying to boff Nora Batty

  • wingZero21 #17 5 years ago

    So let me get this straight I am paying a licence fee to the BBC to provide entertainment TV wise etc etc, now I am giving them money to make a game TO SELL BACK TO ME.. only in the UK can no one give a shit about things like this???

  • lambtron #18 5 years ago

    @ wingZero21

    IMHO the BBC is a necessary evil. If you had lived in the US and listened to Radio stations that are 90% adverts and 10% music (and TV stations that are nearly as bad) you probably would think so too ;)
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/07 @ 12:51

  • moggsy #19 5 years ago

    So let me get this straight I am paying a licence fee to the BBC to provide entertainment TV wise etc etc, now I am giving them money to make a game TO SELL BACK TO ME.. only in the UK can no one give a shit about things like this???

    Would you rather they gave the games away for free and thus definitely diverting funds away from programming?

  • pinchofsalt #20 5 years ago


    Based on the current trend for reality TV - yes.

  • Lawlost #21 5 years ago

    Who said the BBC were going to sell the games for all we know they might be free

  • ForburyLion #22 5 years ago

    Perhaps they're planning to convert the Going Live phone in games to consoles, complete with useless AI ignoring your voice commands... Up... no back down... up again... down a bit... up up up up... down....."Sorry, your times up"

  • poxymoron #23 5 years ago

    An East Enders FPS please.

  • poxymoron #24 5 years ago

    Monkey tennis?

  • SuperStalin #25 5 years ago

    Top Gear Beach Volleyball, with nude 3D digitized Jeremy Clarkson.
    Now that would be something.

  • MGG #26 5 years ago

    How about the BBC get back to doing quality tv & radio programming and to stop chasing every single commerical market? It is, after all, why they exist! Oh, and to stop chasing the lowest common denominator viewer, and leave that to ITV and Sky. More *intelligent* programming please, less reality/soap opera shit.

  • Azazel #27 5 years ago

    Manpuncher vs Boxhead?

  • Azazel #28 5 years ago

    MANPUNCHER VS BOXHEAD 2?

  • DanWhitehead #29 5 years ago

    So let me get this straight I am paying a licence fee to the BBC to provide entertainment TV wise etc etc, now I am giving them money to make a game TO SELL BACK TO ME.. only in the UK can no one give a shit about things like this???

    Anything funded by the license fee must be free to the public - including radio, television and online.

    BBC Worldwide is a legally separate limited company set up to handle BBC properties in commercial markets. All the BBC magazines, comics, and these games, would fall under this. It is not funded by the license payer. Now, you could argue that this create a monopoly, where only BBC Worldwide gets to license BBC properties, but that's an entirely different argument.

    The license fee is paid to keep the BBC free-to-air, and to fund a broad range of programming to appeal to as many people as possible. Anyone who thinks that the BBC only offers "reality and soap opera shit" should look beyond the BBC One evening schedule. BBC Two and BBC Three have nurtured some of the best comedy around. BBC Four produces fantastic documentaries. CBeebies is an absolutely superb pre-school channel. There's a whole host of free radio stations, covering loads of niche audiences. The BBC website is one of the most comprehensive on the internet.

    Don't get me wrong - I have my problems with the license fee and how its implemented, but to pretend that the BBC just takes your money and gives it to Graham Norton for more theatrical talent shows is spectacularly wrong.

  • bdc #30 5 years ago

    Oh geez. Their TV is so fucking bad.

  • SuperStalin #31 5 years ago

    BBC is by far the best TV on the planet. I can't get it here in my country,
    but I downloaded at least a 100GB of their documentaries, series etc.

    So, anyway, I think a "Louis Theroux weird weekends" game is in order ;)

  • kgthatsme #32 5 years ago

    perhaps similar games to those children would ring up Going Live or Live'n'Kickin to play where they'd shout out directional moves to collect apples.

  • PanStre #33 5 years ago

    @ lambtron

    You do realise that people get sent to prison - unjustly - for not paying the telly tax, and yet your concern is with not having to put up with adverts. That doesn't sound like such a great trade off to me, y'know, I'd much rather have innocent people not convicted of a so-called 'crime' - as described by the extortionate greedy Beeb and those thugs they hire to chase people who they think should have to pay - than not to have adverts.

  • Bidermaier #34 5 years ago

    Please, make the game on the Wii and let us play the Dr. Who music with the Wiimote just like a theremin. Thanks.

  • rhinoxious #35 5 years ago

    It's also worth pointing out that all the profit made by BBC Worldwide (except for a limited amount reinvested in the business for growth purposes) is then gifted back to the BBC itself and goes into the license fee pot for making programmes.

    ps. I worked on FightBox at the BBC, it broke me.

  • Goffee #36 5 years ago

    Oh please,

    Fireman Sam: The Game - I finally get to stick it to Naughty Norman Price - any parent will understand