Warren Ellis, who writes Transmetropolitan and Planetary for DC is working with video game developer Interplay to create a new action/adventure game, Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising.  Ellis, who was recently named one of the hundred most creative people in entertainment by Entertainment Weekly, is scripting the new game, which combines command and strategy elements.  Set in a future world where warfare has been largely eliminated, the game pits the minds of fallen soldiers, in the form of Soulcatcher chips that control military hardware, against a cabal of militaristic leaders, arms dealers and despots who are trying to reestablish their ruthless reign of terror.

Ellis, whose credits also include Excalibur and DV8, is also currently writing for White Wolf's pulp fiction RPG, Adventure (see 'Warren Ellis to Write For White Wolf's Adventure').  As video games become more complex in form and format, the narrative elements multiply, hence the need for skilled plotters and scenario writers.  In Japan the video gaming industry has already siphoned off lots of talented individuals from the ranks of both manga and anime creators to design and script for video games.  The economic clout of the video gaming industry is considerable.  To a certain extent comics (and the pulp magazines that preceded them) have always been in the position of 'fattening frogs for snakes,' in other words, developing talented artists and writers who eventually find more lucrative employment in other industries.  The comic-like convergence of the verbal and the visual in contemporary video games bears watching, and the visual and narrative similarities between the two media would appear to dictate that we will see more poaching of comic talent by the better-funded video game software developers.  Obviously, this doesn't mean that Warren Ellis, who evidently enjoys working in comics, is about to stop writing them in favor of lucrative video opportunities, but others might.