Battlestar Galactica to frak up XBLA, PCs

NBC Universal and its corporate sibling, publisher Vivendi Games, are teaming up to bring fans a multiplayer action game based on the popular Sci Fi Network series Battlestar Galactica. Developed by Australian studio Auran Games, the game will be available as a digital download in the fall for the PC and Xbox Live Arcade. No price was announced.

Released under Vivendi's subsidiary Sierra Entertainment, the online Battlestar game will focus on space dogfights, giving players the option to play as either the humans or the Cylons. The game will feature levels based on episodes from the show's first two seasons, and Sierra expects to offer updates after the game's release.

Unfortunately, the game is not the Battlestar role-playing game series creator Ronald D. Moore said he was pondering at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. NBC U is still shopping the idea of other Battlestar games to publishers, but full-fledged console games have an average two-year development cycle. Universal interactive licensing vice president Bill Kispert says a downloadable game works perfectly to immediately capture the excitement surrounding the series, which recently moved to Sunday nights.

"The show is really hot right now and the fans want content so we had a lot of discussion to figure out something we could do this year," Kispert explained. To help whip up enthusiasm, a new content pack of Battlestar-themed Xbox dashboard themes and gamer pics was released over the weekend. Xbox 360 owners can also still download Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far, a two-hour condensation of the first two seasons of the show, for free via Xbox Live Marketplace.