WEALTH OF CONTENT SHOWCASES ORIGINAL GAME SCORE BY COMPOSER CHANCE THOMAS
Ubisoft has unveiled a massive new music site for Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. Music fans will revel in the sheer volume of Kong content available, including full-length MP3’s of Chance Thomas’ orchestral score, an exclusive new game music video, documentary footage and candid behind-the-scenes anecdotes. The site can be accessed at this link:
“The music is the linchpin for the game’s mood and atmosphere,” says Morgan “Rhoulette” Romine, Online Community Manager for Ubisoft’s King Kong marketing team and a key player in bringing the game’s music to light. “The music section lets people get a sense for how it feels to be in Kong’s world before actually playing the game.”
“The Ubisoft marketing team has been incredible,” adds Thomas. “They’ve made the music a huge part of the King Kong website experience. A couple of them told me the music section has more content than the rest of the site combined. For a composer, it just doesn’t get much better than that.”
The unprecedented scale underscores a colossal fact: the game’s two hour orchestral score may be the single largest all-original component of the game. Creative Director Michel Ancel explained, “We wanted to compose our own music for the game, with the blessing of Peter Jackson of course." Peter Jackson told the New York Times it was his intent to create a "universe apart from the film, one that showed the emotional complexities of both the hunter and the hunted." Music Supervisor Aurelien Baguerre adds, “The game has its own style of music and orchestral colour. It helps to complete the immersion of the player.”
The new online music pages offer more than 35 minutes of free MP3 music downloads. These are full-length tracks that might otherwise comprise the better part of a soundtrack album. Thomas elaborates, “Since Ubisoft was not permitted to sell a video game soundtrack album, this music site was a labor of love to bring the Kong game score to the fans.”
Each music track is posted according to the level or character it accompanies on a dedicated web page: T-REX, ANN DARROW, KONG, PREDATORS, and SKULL ISLAND. Super size screen shots provide a visual focus on each page, with extensive composer commentary accompanying each track. Photographs from the Kong recording sessions with the orchestra and choir are also included, illustrating a detailed written account of how the music was conceived and took shape.
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie is due in stores November 22, 2005 on all major platforms.