Warner Bros is set to put out a game based on the upcoming Watchmen film. Instead of going for the usual big blockbuster retail release that normally accompanies big blockbuster films, however, Warner Bros is releasing the game in episodic downloadable form.

Warner Bros describes the games as "a mature action-brawler". It will feature two of the film's urban vigilante-types - Nite Owl and Rorschach and will apparently "go beyond the film". SPOnG kind of wishes that, instead of focussing on the film, the game was taking its lead from the original comic. The Nite Owl from the film looks double hard (see the trailer below) and a bit like Batman. The Nite Owl from the comic was soft around the middle and a bit of a loser. We reckon that would make for an interesting game...

Deadline Games, which previously worked on Chili Con Carnage on PSP, is developing the title. It will be released on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and PC in 2009.

The decision to make a downloadable game based on what is looking like a great big blockbuster is an unusual one. According to Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment senior VP of production and development, Samantha Ryan, the reason for the decision goes as follows - "We don’t want a low-quality console game that will get lost at retail. A downloadable game allows us to deliver the experience that fans expect."^†

Hopefully she's right, but serious Watchmen fans will be wanting (if not necessarily expecting) a lot. The comics are some of the most revered in the medium's history and helped shape the direction of the entire super-hero genre.

In other comic and downloadable game-related news, Hothead Games has said that Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One, will be coming to the PlayStation Network. Watch out for it in late Autumn.



^{†Source: Variety}