Sierra Spring Break 08: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand isn’t set in desert, moniker was “chosen by the marketing team”

By Patrick Garratt

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand game director Julian Widdows said that the game’s naming was a marketing decision – not one level in the shooter is set in the desert.

VG247: The game is going to get compared to Iraq and we know you don’t agree with that, so why choose the name Blood on the Sand?

Julian Widdows: The name was chosen by the marketing team in the US and the licensor. So, those guys decided on the subtitle and you’ll need to talk to those guys about that.

VG247: It’s a rather weird decision, as no level is actually set in the desert, is it?

JW: We set out from day one to set the game in a contemporary urban environment. It’s designed to be an everyman’s warzone. The question, ‘Is it set in the Middle East?’ is actually, ‘Is it set in an identifiable geographical location?’ ‘Does it have a real context?’ ‘Is it a real place?’ It absolutely isn’t. It’s a pastiche of every war zone. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t Eastern influences, but it is a very contemporary city. The influences were actually a Mediterranean seaboard city. In fact, not one level is in a desert at all.

50 Cent: Blood in the sand blasts its way to a next gen console near you in the fourth quarter, yo.

By Mike Bowden