Disney Gets Desperate Housewives

Now you can get bitchy and fight among your friends and have a say in the outcome too.

It's fair to say that games have won over males young and old, but game makers are still struggling to expand their reach to women. Walt Disney is one of these nervous firms and to reach its goal the company is getting Desperate... Housewives, that is.

Walt Disney and its game subsidiary Buena Vista revealed last week that they are working on a new Sims-esque PC game set on Wisteria Lane, home to hit TV show Desperate Housewives. You'll star as a player-created housewife and have the freedom to emulate your favourite character from the show or even go it your own way.

"You can be as nice or as mean as you'd like to be," Buena Vista's Mary Schuyler told Reuters news service.

The story, set over eight episodes, sees you move in to the neighbourhood where you'll be able to interact with the show's main characters. As you play, you'll learn that you've had amnesia for the past 20 years and try to get to answer to secrets from your past.

"As fans of the show would expect, the game is loaded with gossip, betrayal, murder and sex - you know, all the things women like," Schuyler told USA Today.

So far there's little star power involved. Buena Vista has signed show narrator Brenda Strong (she plays dead housewife Mary Alive Young), who will do likewise for the game. But the company is still trying to convince the show's catty quintet - Eva Longoria, Nicolette Sheridan, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Teri Hatcher - to take part.

The game is being made by Liquid Entertainment, which recently finished work on strategy title Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring for EA. Desperate Housewives should be out on PC later this year.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games