Telltale Games is going Back to the Future, literally. The game company has signed a multi-year, two-title video game development deal with Universal Partnerships & Licensing. Telltale Games has secured the rights to create videogames based on two of Universal Pictures’ most popular intellectual properties, Back to the Future and Jurassic Park. The first game released under the agreement will be a Telltale Games “season” based on the successful Back to the Future series of films.
With more than five million episodes delivered to date across all major video game platforms, Telltale is a leader in digitally delivering episodic content to consumers. The agreement broadens Telltale’s product offerings into new genres and new styles of gameplay.
“Our partnership with Universal is an exciting next step in our continued growth as a mass-market games publisher and developer,” said Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale Games. “We are all huge fans of both of these franchises. For Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, we will leverage Telltale’s expertise in story-telling and game design to deliver on the unique elements of each series, with our goal being to create compelling cinematic adventures paying homage to each franchise.”
Jurassic Park and Back to the Future are two of the most successful film trilogies ever, grossing over $3 billion dollars at the box office collectively.
“Telltale Games has succeeded in establishing a unique combination of digital and physical distribution models, and their reputation for quality production is well earned,” said Bill Kispert, Vice President and General Manger, Digital Platforms, Universal Partnerships & Licensing. “Telltale’s episodic story-telling is an ideal means by which to add compelling new content to these important franchises.”
While Jurassic Park has seen many videogame incarnations, this marks the first time Back to the Future is heading to modern consoles. Look for the first videogame based “season” of Back to the Future from Telltale this winter, followed shortly by Jurassic Park. Telltale will release more information on both game series at a later date. Neither game will be shown at E3 2010, according to a company rep.