Doctor Who's special 50th anniversary episode was a big hit around the world. Now BBC Worldwide is hoping to capitalise with the release of a new mobile game, Doctor Who: Legacy.
The game, released for iOS and for Android today, adopts the dominant business model of the app stores: free-to-play, and making its money from in-app purchases of virtual items.
BBC Worldwide worked with developers Tiny Rebel Games and Seed Studio on the game, which focuses on the sixth and seventh seasons of the rebooted TV show. That means Matt Smith's Doctor, companions Clara, Rory and Amy, and monsters including the Weeping Angels, The Silence and the Daleks.
The developers say some more classic characters, including K-9 and Sarah Jane, will be added in the run-up to Christmas, with content based on new Doctor Who's fifth season to be added early in 2014. There's some blurring of the boundaries already: David Tennant's Doctor can be spotted in app store screenshots for the game at launch.
The inspiration for the game's characters and plot may be its parent series, but the gameplay owes a debt to something else: Japanese hit Puzzle & Dragons, which is currently one of the most lucrative mobile games in the world.
As with that game, players match colourful orbs at the bottom of the screen to attack monsters at the top, levelling up characters as they go. The Doctor Who game's virtual currency – time crystals – can be earned through playing, or bought to speed up progress in amounts ranging from £0.69 for one crystal to £34.99 for 70.
Puzzle & Dragons helped its publisher, GungHo Online, make $446m in revenues in the second quarter of 2013. Mobile analytics company Distimo estimates it was the fourth top grossing app in Apple's App Store worldwide in October, and the top grossing app on Android's Google Play store. Rival App Annie agreed on the latter point, but placed Puzzle & Dragons third on Apple's store for October.
BBC Worldwide will be hoping Doctor Who: Legacy can find similar success on both stores, although it's not the first official Doctor Who app to be released or licensed by the broadcaster's commercial arm.
Fans recently got their hands on a Sonic Screwdriver app for iOS, which joined an official Doctor Who Comics app; aDoctor Who: The Mazes of Time mobile game; a Doctor Who: EyeStalk photography app to "take photos and movies using a Dalek point of view"; and an iOS version of the Doctor Who Adventures magazine for younger fans.
