Near the end of the presentation at Microsoft’s X06 keynote, Peter Moore brought out famed film writer/director/producer Peter Jackson. While Jackson spoke for a few minutes about his view on games, the bottom line was this: Peter Jackson (along with longtime partner Fran Walsh) is opening a new MGS imprint studio, Wingnut Interactive, named after Jackson’s Wingnut Fims.
The studio’s first project will be based in the Halo universe and developed in conjunction with Bungie.
Jackson began by expressing his feelings that the advances in technology were finally allowing for gaming to become a true platform for storytelling, and that Wingnut’s titles wouldn’t necessarily be aimed at the hardcore gamer. Jackson was hesitant to even use the word "game" to describe his upcoming projects, due to the fact that they will be so focused upon storytelling, suggesting they won’t conform to what’s considered the norm in game development.
Jackson’s heavyweight status in both the filmmaking and interactive entertainment worlds could put him in direct rivalry with the other auteur-founded, blockbuster-producing studio, George Lucas’ Lucasarts.
