Obsidian Working on South Park RPG (Yes, Really)

On Thursday THQ said that it's collaborating with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the animated TV show South Park, to create a role-playing game based on the highly-popular show. Simply called South Park: The Game, it will be developed by Obsidian Entertainment and land on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC in the second half of 2012.

Little is known about the RPG at this point, although THQ described South Park: The Game as "an epic role-playing adventure that will allow the user to befriend Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny and explore the quiet little mountain town like never before."

A South Park RPG developed by Obsidian should prove interesting, as the studio has created a number of impressive titles for all three platforms including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3. In addition to the South Park title, the studio is also working on a Wheel of Time game for all three platforms.

To date, there have been five games based on the South Park series, the first of which was a first-person shooter in 1998 from Acclaim released on the Nintendo 64 followed by the original PlayStation and Windows PC. While I was personally a big fan of the game, critics weren't too crazy about the South Park shooter, complaining about repetitive voice acting, poor graphics and frustrating gameplay... guess throwing pee-covered snowballs and shooting a toilet-plunger launcher just wasn't enough to win critics over.

Nonetheless, the combination of better technology, a well-established publisher and a top-notch developer should help bring the South Park franchise back into a more popular light in the gaming sector. "Our goal is simple: to put creative talent first," said Danny Bilson, EVP Core Games, THQ. "Matt and Trey are arguably two of the most important comedic talents of their generation. Bringing their vision of South Park to the interactive space is a dream-come-true."

Additional information regarding the South Park RPG will be available in the January issue of Game Informer, shipping to subscribers in early December 2011 (aka now).