Once upon a time, if you wanted your own video-game as a celebrity, you had to be a sports star. Mike Tyson had Punch Out, Shaq had his Fu and Tiger Woods had the PGA Tour series until he had a few domestic disputes that knocked him off-of the public's most-loved list.
But over the past decade more and more celebrities have been getting into the video-game business, not only funding them themselves, but often starring in them too. Sometimes it's a labour of love, with the well-known individual themselves forking over developmental costs, helping design the experience and collaborating on playtesting; and sometimes it's just a cash grab.
Lately there's been a lot of people in both camps. There's the Arnold Swartzenegger promoted Mobile Strike mobile game that really falls into the latter, but equally so you could point to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which saw baseball star Curt Schilling pump $50 million of his hard earned dollars into creating a game that although not a financial success, definitely deserved some praise for its design.
Others have been a little more successful with much less effort. The Kim Kardashian game has reviewed very well on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and currently has over 20 million players. It's purportedly made close to $50 million, which for a small mobile app about nonsense fashion and relationship choices is quite a feat.
Of course if his wife made a game, Kanye West was going to get in on the action too. His is a little different in that it features his deceased mother riding a Pegasus through clouds like she's in heaven of some sort. We'll let you know how that one turns out, but we bet it won't be quite as successful.
While this current trend of celebrities getting into gaming feels quite intense though, it's worth remembering that this sort of rush has happened before. It was only just over a decade ago when 50 Cent decided he needed to be in a video game. Despite struggling to pronounce the word "Bullet Proof" in the title, it did well enough that it spawned a sequel in 2009, Blood in the Sand.
That wasn't the first time rappers starred in video games though. Throughout the '00s various artists from DMX, to Wu-Tang to Xzibit starred in various Def Jam brawling games and Snoop Dogg showed up in True Crime: Streets of L.A. in 2003.
Those cameo appearances – along with a hefty fee we would presume – are just as common in the modern era of gaming of course. Right alongside the celebrities getting their own branded games, you have the likes of Kevin Spacey, Jeff Goldblum and John Malkovich showing up in various Call of Duty Games, with more seemingly showing up in every DLC release; then there's Bruce Lee in EA Sports UFC, Burt Reynolds in the Third Saints Row game and Keith David in the fourth one.
As much as this latest crop might have the facial tracking and motion capture systems in place to really make us see the celebrities in question during our gaming, you'd be surprised to learn that a lot of celebrities have been lending their voice acting talents to games for much longer.
Did you know Liam Neeson acted as James, the protagonist's father, in Falllout 3? What about the fact that Seth Green, best known for voicing Chris Griffin and creating Robot Chicken, voiced Jeff Moreau in Mass Effect?
Both roles were well received, though they didn't get quite the acclaim that Samuel Jackson received for his portrayal of Officer Frank Tenpenny in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Although nobody would be surprised to learn that his character dropped plenty of N bombs, throughout the script, his acting as a corrupt cop swayed the judges at the 2004 Spike Video Game Awards to grant him a Best Performance award.
Bet you didn't know little Haley Joel Osmont from the Sixth Sense played Sora in Kingdom Hearts either, did you?
Yes Celebrities and video-games go hand in hand, because if there's money to be made and a face and a name can help it out, why not slap them on the box and in the marketing. As Arnold Swartzenegger showed us, you don't actually have to have anything to do with the game to take home a pay cheque. If Mr Schilling showed us anything it's that perhaps the best thing you can do is let the professionals handle it.
Have you enjoyed any particular celebrity endorsed or promoted games in the past. I remember finishing 50 Cent's Blood in the Sand. It felt much like Army of Two, which at the time was quite a fun shooter.
