Having turned his back on mainstream development with Microsoft, the inimitable Peter Molyneux and his indie studio 22Cans have been slowly chipping away at the details of their first project – Curiosity: The Cube. It is a title befitting such an intriguing experiment, but it is one that it apparently can no longer keep.
As Molyneux revealed on Twitter, the game’s name needs to be re-evaluated:
“Humm there is a problem the the name curiosity, we can’t use it because of NASA. I wonder what one word would sum up curiosity:the cube”
This is of course in response to the recently successful (and incredible) landing of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, which has ‘stolen’ much of the term’s potential presence on Google. This, as opposed to any active intervention by NASA, is the reason for the change, as Molyneux revealed to Modojo (Eurogamer’s mobile-focused site):
“The name change is prompted by the need to have something simple to search for in Google. This worked well for ‘Curiosity’ but since NASA: Curiosity is now obviously generating a lot of interest we need to change the name.”
Suggestions for alternative names are being encouraged, and it looks as if the game’s established veneer of Curiosity: The Cube will be removed before too long. However, with the game delayed until next month one has to wonder whether this is even necessary. The internet is a rather fickle beast; And whilst I wish it wasn’t the case, I can’t imagine NASA’s Curiosity crippling the game’s Google presence upon its release.
