Lost game coming courtesy Ubisoft Montreal

by Christopher Grant { May 22nd 2006 at 1:57PM }

The relationship between ABC's mega-hit Lost and video games has long been considered, from its similarities to ARGs, how it would make a great MMO, to more recent rumors of an actual Lost console game.

Now, according to a report from ABC News, Ubisoft's illustrious Montréal studio (responsible for the Prince of Persia series and, more tellingly, Myst IV: Revelations) is working on an adaptation of the series for consoles, handhelds, and PC. Just how the game will work on the various platforms (adventure?, platformer?, rhythm game?) has yet to be revealed, but the series' particular elements lend themselves well to a video game. Unfortunately, the same could be said of countless other adapted properties that have failed to live up to fans' understandably high reactions.

Considering that Lost is frequently mentioned in the same sentence as "episodic" and "content," could Ubisoft be planning an episodic adaptation?

[Thanks, jonathan]

Tags: ABC, Lost, Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal, UbisoftMontreal

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kevin @ May 22nd 2006 2:03PM

Great... Lost is pretty big here in the UK, so if it doesn't sell well in the US then it might have a market here.

lazy @ May 22nd 2006 2:05PM

Live anywhere, anyone?

vidGuy @ May 22nd 2006 2:12PM

Well LOST is huge in the US, too. I think a PC version as a MMO would work out well, with teams exploring the island's mysteries. On the console side, it could be a 3rd person Myst-type game, with battles against the monster and the Others. It could probably play out well as a Resident Evil type game too, the ultimate "survival" game!

I'd also like to mention that LOST does have an on-going ARG. It involves a lot of websites and phone numbers. Visit http://www.4815162342.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=12 for good info.

Dignan17 @ May 22nd 2006 2:17PM

Kevin: Uh, Lost is enormous in the US. I don't think they're struggling or anything.

Joystiq: "the series' particular elements lend themselves well to a video game."

Really? Would you care to share some examples? I don't see it at all. The game creators would either have to create a game revolving around some story of limited scope in relation to the rest of the show, or they'd have to get in good with the series creators and create an experience that reveals some of the mysteries of the island. The latter wouldn't be that great for people who have no interest in playing the game, because they'd be missing out on part of the puzzle.

Anyway, I'll be interested to see what genre they end up with.

I vote beach volleyball.

Dignan17 @ May 22nd 2006 2:23PM

Sorry for the double post. It didn't go through for a long while, so I posted again. Can a moderator or someone delete one of them? Thanks.

ncdign @ May 22nd 2006 2:24PM

The game will consist of having to push the 'A' button every 108 minutes in the hopes that something interesting will happen. But nothing will.

Silent @ May 22nd 2006 2:26PM

what about a dance game?

chris @ May 22nd 2006 2:26PM

I think the show's elements would transfer perfectly into an MMO. Where the characters don't talk to each other on the show, party members can just as well not communicate in game, until somebody dies :P

e. @ May 22nd 2006 2:33PM

"I vote beach volleyball."
Here's hoping that Hurley will have nice boob bouncing physics.

C. Grant @ May 22nd 2006 2:35PM

Dignan17: Yeah, you're just missing it. Mysteries, puzzles, combat (albeit limited), sailing, swimming, fishing, building, hunting, etc. A game designer would have myriad instances of in-show elements to tease into gameplay elements, that isn't the problem.

And yeah, if you read the ABC News article, the show's creators are involved in the game. I would expect the game to complement the television series, not duplicate it (ala 24: The Game).

KilgoreTrout XL @ May 22nd 2006 2:36PM

From what I've heard, the game will be a tantalizing mixture of Kabuki Warriors meets Earl Weaver Baseball 2 meets a lame copy of Halo's Silent Cartographer with shitcan Clayfighter visuals and clunky GTA combat handling and the soundtrack from Bust-a-Move 4 just to make sure that the suck is turned all the way to eleven.

The cover art will guarantee that the title will provide the gamer approximately equal entertainment value as a swift kick in the pants, and you get a free happy fun ball with your preorder.

Do not taunt happy fun ball.

Thomas Werewolf @ May 22nd 2006 2:45PM

I nominate Tim Schafer to lead development. I bet he could really come up with a great concept for a Lost game in the inventory-centric puzzle style of Full Throttle and Grim Fandango with the more action-oriented gameplay of Psychonauts...

... with a "Torture Henry Gale" mini-game.

KilgoreTrout XL @ May 22nd 2006 2:48PM

Yikes.
To explain my sarcastic post above:

I love the show, but it is what it is- a TV show. I'm tired of these publishers trying to cash in on gamers with crappy titles that sell due to popularity originating within other media.

I wish they'd stop selling, and these developers would get the message to put a stop on the louse games.

Of course, I'd love to be proved wrong here.

e. @ May 22nd 2006 2:50PM

"I nominate Tim Schafer to lead development."
Tim Schafer makes funny, smart games, he doesn't fit on LOST.

...and that would also be the worst waste of great talent, you should burn in hell for having this idea.
Or at least catch a nasty cold.

Jeff @ May 22nd 2006 3:05PM

I think the series is pretty ripe for either an old-school adventure or even a survival horror type game. How marketable those genres are at this point, I don't know (it couldn't really be straight survival horror, since it's not a horrow show... but it could be adventure with survival horror elements).

I don't really know why some people these days seem to think pretty much anything will work as an MMO (I know the one comment above was sarcastic, but the first sentence in the main post and the link that follows wasn't). How would you do LOST as an MMO? First of all, you'd have to segment it so that each island only hosts something like 50 people. You can't have 70,000 players on an island - that kind of defeats the entire point of LOST. Then you'd have to make it so that people can't just switch between islands willy nilly - otherwise you'd mess things up for the whole group.

Then there's the obvious question of just what you would DO in a LOST MMO. Are people going to have "jobs"? Is someone going to have to sit there in the hatch pressing the button every 108 minutes? Is someone else going to have to wash clothes? I mean there is no economy on LOST. There is nothing to do but explore - the whole show is exploration.

(Yeah, you're gonna come back to me about how one side can play The Others and the other side can play the crash people, but what are you gonna do, just sit there and play war for days on end? That's not very LOST-like. This ain't BF1942.)

It has to be an adventure game of some sort. It can maybe be collaborative, but it has to be guided and it has to be a somewhat linear experience involving puzzle-solving. That's what the format lends itself to.

The real problem is how much of the series do you give away? Every game, unless it is an MMO or an FPS (neither of which would work), has an ending. On the other hand, I don't think it's very interesting if all you can do is play through what we already know. I know there is a HUGE amount of backstory that hasn't really been explored on the TV show, but at the same time, I don't know how many people really want to get into the nitty-gritty of the daily workings of the Hanso Foundation either. So it's definitely a challenge.

Most likely we'll end up with some sort of Survivor (the video game) clone and nobody will even want to talk about it after that.

dvddesign @ May 22nd 2006 3:07PM

I could see a game that was episodic in nature.

Have it be a MMO that ties in to episodes. Have content that releases on specified dates. The only problem is that the show's secrets can't be diluted through other mediums. If you do that, you risk alienating the audience. Not everyone will play a MMORPG to find out what happened in the last week on a TV show.

In addition to this, since the show hasn't profiled like half the island's bunker locations, it wouldn't play out correctly to allow access to those areas to the game player. Plus, who knows what areas would have hard facts about what their purpose is?

As much as I'd like to play a game about Lost, if I managed the find the Flame hatch/bunker, I'd be miffed not being able to get in, or let down by what I would find and having the show ruined for me.

I would think that if there's any room for a secondary "project" with the DHARMA project, that'd be the ideal setting for the game. Completely unrelated characters, location, etc.

Jeff @ May 22nd 2006 3:07PM

"Every game, unless it is an MMO or an FPS (neither of which would work), has an ending."

Um, yeah - before I get called out, you know what I meant. Every game in a genre you could actually think of as being a LOST game. I wasn't including driving games, rail shooters, or whatever.

dvddesign @ May 22nd 2006 3:09PM

WAIT! I've got it!

What about a Smoke Monster Breeding game?
Like Monster Rancher or Harvest Moon?

MrTroy @ May 22nd 2006 3:27PM

Great.... You'll play for about 40 hours and get 5 minutes of actual plot of what's ON the island. =(

I'm actually curious to how it'll be pulled off.

Spooky @ May 22nd 2006 3:46PM

I think the gameplay should be based on the x360 game condemned I really think that would be the best route for the game. (all I have to say is cut scenes are gonna be a b!tch with all those flashbacks). It should be great ... hopefully.

Jim @ May 22nd 2006 3:53PM

They already made a LOST game.. it was called PitFall! The only real difference is that there are Scorpions in the "Hatch".

The_Predator @ May 22nd 2006 4:36PM

As for similarities to ARGS, it is an ARG of sorts, check the Hanso Foundation website to get started.

Ben @ May 22nd 2006 5:58PM

I don't think anyone has mentioned this but the game doesn't necessarily have to be about the survivors of flight 815. I mean, the preview for this week's show has promised it will reveal why the survivors really crashed and what they are doing on the island, assuming it is all one big experiment there could be multiple islands filled with all sorts of new characters. I don't see it necessarily being a MMO game, but you could have a similar island with similar events that kind of parallels what has been shown on Lost that wouldn't have to reveal any of the shows secrets. In fact, the game could take place at a different period of time on the same island, maybe 20 years in the past or future and you could either see the Hanso Coporation hard at work or the fact that the survivors are all gone and have no idea where they went. Hell, it's a video game, you could even have it take place in an present-day alternate dimension where flight 815 never crashed. Just some ideas.