Buena Vista Games (BVG), the global interactive entertainment arm of The Walt Disney Company, today announced that the highly anticipated game The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, inspired by the upcoming film from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, will be console exclusive to PlayStation® 2 throughout PAL territories until 31 March 2006. The PS2 exclusivity does not affect PC or handheld releases in Europe, or the full line-up of games to be released in North America. The PAL PS2, PC and handheld titles will ship to retail in November, 2005.
The deal sees significant TV and marketing support from SCEE, including online and PS2 bundles across all PAL territories.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has all the ingredients of a hit videogame franchise: great characters, vast environments and dynamic gameplay,” commented Sean Ratcliffe, European marketing director, Buena Vista Games. “Through this co-marketing opportunity, Narnia will become a major entertainment event in Europe and around the world. The game is perfect for the PS2 customer and we predict great sales success for the title.”
“We are looking forward to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on PlayStation 2. The time and effort BVG, Disney and Walden Media have made to develop CS Lewis’ classic adventure story for the game and movie worlds, will prove to be hugely popular for many PlayStation 2 owners. For this reason we are pleased to collaborate with BVG in bringing the game to them,” commented Simon Rutter, vice president of Product Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
In the game, players enter the world of Narnia, a land frozen in a 100 year winter by the evil powers of the malevolent White Witch. In order to end this frigid captivity and free his people, the mighty lion Aslan invokes an ancient prophecy. It will become the destiny of four siblings from our world: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie to work together and use their unique combat skills, weaponry and abilities to defeat the Witch and her armies to save Narnia. These four heroes must battle the evil forces of the White Witch by waging war against a vast variety of creatures, including, Minotaurs, Minoboars, Cyclops, Werewolves, Horrors, Ankleslicers, Wolves, Boggles and more.
These ferocious creatures are modeled in the game after the characters being created for the motion picture, by the digital and visual effects geniuses at New Zealand-based Weta Workshop, whose credits include “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” “Van Helsing,” and “I, Robot.” Additional game features include intricate puzzle solving, two-player action featuring all four characters, and seamless game play integration with real film footage. The console and PC games are developed by UK-based Traveller’s Tales, and the handheld games are developed by Seattle-based Amaze Entertainment.
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE is a spectacular live action/CGI motion picture adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ beloved literary classic. The film marks the first live action directorial effort for Andrew Adamson (Academy Award®-winner for “Shrek,” “Shrek 2”), who also co-wrote the film’s screenplay adaptation with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The film is produced by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Mark Johnson (“Rain Man”). The film will be released December 9, 2005.
