Now Patterson Wants to Conquer Video Games

The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul Hyman tracks down James Patterson and finds out why he’s about to collaborate with Jane Jensen (of GABRIEL KNIGHT fame) on a video game version of the WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB, which will be in stores this May:

“Look, it strikes me that the video game area is an incredibly

lucrative niche market,” he explains, “one populated by a small

number of boys — and grownup boys — who like to shoot things and

spend a lot of money. But that excludes most of the universe. What

I love about this project is the chance to widen the boundaries of

what people can do on the small screen, sort of like what the

[Nintendo] Wii is accomplishing. We’re going to give people who

don’t want to shoot things … who prefer to use their brains … a

chance to solve a really good mystery. This will open up a whole

new arena to a lot of people who don’t play games now. I believe

that market is huge.”

Though he is right about the market, the jury’s out on whether there will, in fact, be transference from books to games. And if the game sucks, that would be a problem.