MotoGP balls-up

THQ have moved to correct reports from X01 about MotoGP, their Climax-developed Xbox property. For starters, they say, "1. MotoGP is a motorcycling event in the same vein as Formula 1 for cars". We shudder to think who misreported that one, but fair enough. "2. MotoGP is NOT a property owned by Namco." We can certainly understand their consternation over that point, but if they will keep using the name of Namco's PS2 motorcycling game, what do they expect? It was the same with the somewhat ambiguous Advance GT on the GameBoy Advance... And they wonder why people are confused?

"3. MotoGP for Xbox is being published by THQ". Got that? "4. MotoGP for Xbox is being developed by Brighton-based Climax". They certainly deserve recognition here. "5. MotoGP for Xbox has NO connection with Sony, PS2 or Namco's title". And in conclusion, THQ announced a new first person shooter called Earthquake, a new strategy game called Command & Control and a new puzzle game called Daft Lemmings. (Note: they didn't really.) Funnily enough, a couple of hours after receiving this bizarre e-mail we received a further clarification clarifying their earlier clarification, with THQ admitting that "it would appear that there is still some confusion over the GBA version of MotoGP", and that some of the corrected reports appearing on gaming sites were now in need of correction themselves. Yes, the PS2 game was developed by Namco, but "all versions of MotoGP are based on the MotoGP property owned by Dorna and .. the MotoGP motorcycling event", as they had pointed out earlier. The apparent confusion in some quarters comes from the fact that THQ have publishing rights for Xbox and GameBoy Advance games based on the MotoGP event, while Namco are licensed for the PlayStation 2. And for those of you who were wondering, the GBA version of the game is being developed for THQ by Visual Impact Productions.

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