Over 500,000 Downloaded Doctor Who Adventure Game In UK

Publisher BBC Wales Interactive says more than half a million people downloaded the first episode of its Doctor Who: The Adventure Games series in the first 12 days after the PC game released for free in the UK. As with the other episodes, the first release, City of the Daleks, was originally intended as a full and legitimate Doctor Who episode for the sci-fi television program, and features the likenesses and voices of the show's stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillen. Doctor Who's head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, as well as many others involved with the production of the show, is also involved with the publicly-funded game project, as Sumo Digital (Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Virtua Tennis 2009) handles its development. Along with the 524,299 UK gamers that downloaded City of the Daleks, the publisher notes that the BBC's main Doctor Who site received a week-on-week 67 percent increase in traffic from unique UK visitors during the seven days after the game was released. BBC Wales Interactive plans to unveil the second episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games in Scotland next week. While gamers with a UK IP address can still download the first episode for free, those outside the country will need to wait for a paid retail edition due some time next month. "To say we're thrilled that we've received in excess of half a million download requests within the first 12 days is an understatement," says BBC Multiplatform head Simon Nelson. "The project has been a real labour of love from the whole Doctor Who and multiplatform team, so we're delighted the reaction has been so strong." He adds, "The response has been tremendous - with almost universal praise from Doctor Who fans. It's clear we've got people playing these 'interactive episodes' who wouldn't ordinarily play through a computer game - and the opportunity to actually be the Doctor is hugely appealing.