Malice is just a girl

In one of the more bizarre celebrity tie-ins we've come across recently, Vivendi Universal have announced that No Doubt will be starring in Argonaut's action-adventure game Malice. The Californian ska band, who hit the big time a few years ago with hits like Just A Girl and Don't Speak, are not only providing three new songs for the game, but will also have starring roles as in-game characters. Lead singer Gwen Stefani will be supplying the voice of the teenage girl with the big hammer, while the rest of the band dub young Malice's friends. "This collaboration between Vivendi Universal's Games and Music divisions is a prime example of the unique, synergistic opportunities available within the Vivendi Universal family of companies", VU Games president Luc Vanhal babbled. That's presumably marketing speak for "No Doubt's career has been flagging a little recently, so we thought we would bring them to the attention of a whole new audience by having them provide the soundtrack for one of our biggest games". Of course, this isn't the first time that this has happened. David Bowie and his wife appeared in the bizarre French adventure game Nomad Soul a couple of years back, with several songs from his album Hours debuting on the game's soundtrack. It didn't really help the game's fortunes, but finding the man himself playing a gig in one of the city's bars was certainly an .. er .. interesting experience, mostly thanks to the ludicrous character animation that made David look like a puppet being controlled by a drunk. With Malice due out on Xbox and PlayStation 2 this autumn, we should know soon whether this is a silly marketing stunt or an inspired holistic exploitation of synergistic potentialities, bringing about a landmark event in the history of videogames. Or something. Related Feature - Malice heading for PlayStation 2

Source - press release