Disney's new racing video game at core of big bet -- AP

[Andrew]

Disney's new racing video game at core of big bet (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hF8DKUq44XdIU-TZFjsWWuWdVU3QD96RG0AO0) -- AP

Walt Disney Co. is taking the wraps off an advanced new car racing video game that the entertainment company hopes will bolster its success in the lucrative gaming sector.
As sales of video games prove relatively resilient in the economic downturn, Disney is betting that it can prosper broadly from new games that it makes on its own. Rather than licensing Disney content out to game publishers, Disney's in-house gaming team wants to generate video game characters and story lines that can be the basis of movies as well.
"That is the Holy Grail for video games, to see them successfully become franchises," Graham Hopper, head of Disney's game division, told The Associated Press.
To that end, the company is investing in projects like the latest from its Brighton, England-based Black Rock Studio, a car racing game called "Split/Second" for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PCs, set within the world of a reality television show.

[MouseVII]

Looks like an arcade-based racer. I'd be more interested if it was sim-based.

[Ohthatjeff]

But making a sim racing game requires far too much work to pull off and if you're not one of the very best it's hard to capture consumers. Everything has to be done well for a simulation styled game to work. If I want a quality sim, I'll pick up Forza or Gran Tourismo 5 (assuming that it ever comes out).

With arcade style racing, you just need a gimick. It can be racing high end sports cars, customizing your vehicle, or spectacular wrecks and challenges. You don't need to do everything well, just one thing very well. From the looks of this one, they're going with "big explosions".

[MouseVII]

I agree that an arcade based game would probably sell better, just saying it would look more interesting to me it if it was sim based. I looked at a preview of it and to me it looks a lot like many other arcade games out there. At least I got my GTR2.