Virgin returns to PC gaming

With games like The Seventh Guest under its belt, Virgin Interactive was at one time considered to be among the most important publishers of PC games. But that was a decade ago, and in the years since, Virgin has been completely absent from the PC market. That all changed late last week when Titus Software resurrected the Virgin name and announced that it would be publishing five PC games--Codename: Outbreak, Original War, Nightstone, Screamer 4x4, and Jimmy White Cueball--under that label.

Interestingly, all five games will launch for the low price of $20. To keep the price so low, Virgin has had to cut back on presentation, which means that these games will ship in smaller-than-usual boxes, and their instruction manuals will actually be on the CD. Virgin says it will send a free printed manual to anyone who buys one of these games and sends in a request for a manual, though. According to company spokesman Jim Maguire, this move helps reduce the price of Virgin's games without sacrificing their quality.

All of Virgin's announced games are currently scheduled to release this year, except for Nightstone, an isometric strategy game that plays a lot like Diablo. Nightstone is slated for an early 2002 release. We'll have more info and screenshots on all these games as their release date approaches.