DIE ACTOR DIE

Variety reports that a software company named MumboJumbo has purchased the rights from NBC to make The Office video game.

Money shot:

Peacock net comedy will be the first-ever Hollywood license for the publisher, which makes inexpensive arcade-style games. It plans to turn “The Office” into a humorous game in which players have to handle jobs and play pranks at Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch.

Inexpensive + humorous + “players have to handle jobs” = Trainwreck.

This reminded me of other poorly conceived TV shows cum video games:

• Punky Brewster: Brandon’s Revenge for the Atari 5200
• Doogie Howser: The Caves of Maltdar for Sega
• What’s Happening Now! Where’s Dwanye? for Sega CD
• Soap Quest for Intellivison
• Tootie: KillDeathKill, A Facts of Life Game for Collecovision
• Gilligan’s Island 6: Gilligan’s Hideaway for PC

and

• Buck Rogers: Hawk’s Love Triangle (never released)

If done well (and if the writers have any involvement it will be) an The Office game could be a fun little distraction. If done poorly (see ET and Raiders for the Atari 2600) it will be another example of “quick buckiness.”