Game publishers get all manner of weird game pitches. Sometimes, one man's weird pitch is another man's potential goldmine... especially when sexual positions are involved.
In an interview over at Eurogamer, Sony producer Pete Smith talked about a pitch the company once got for a game for the PlayStation 2's EyeToy camera based on the Kama Sutra, the ancient Hindu text about sex and sexual positions.
"We were talking about it back at the office," Smith told Eurogamer, "Obviously we didn't sign it and it never ever saw the light of day. But we were going, how exactly would we QA it? You can imagine these two big hairy testers going, 'No, you're the bitch tonight.'"
Ha! I can indeed imagine that QA would be a problem. Still though, this could be a pretty darned cool game. At least, Smith notes, the guys pitching it were into the idea.
How would you demo the game to press?
"I know," Smith said. "You'd just have to go for it, wouldn't you? In one sense I think, god, I wish it would have been done. We could have maybe got some celebrity endorsements and stuff like that.
"What I just find strange is, sometimes you get these pitches and you think, this is just bonkers. But the developers absolutely believe in it, which is great. I'd much rather that than they come along halfhearted.
"This guy - I can remember it, I will never forget him - he was like, 'We want to do this. We think it could be great. And, yeah. We get all kinds of pitches, but that's definitely the one that stands out for me."
While this opens the door to all manner of silly jokes (many of which I dearly hope to see in the comments), it's also a cool story. I wish companies like Sony talked more about the out-there pitches they get.
And hey, who knows? With Kinect plugged into PCs and technology improving every day, we could still get a camera-based Kama Sutra game. Next to Polymorphous Perversity, it'd seem positively tame.
EyeToy Kama Sutra - the game Sony rejected [Eurogamer]
(Top image detail from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Supercharged Kama Sutra Illustrated, which you can totally buy.)