One Left Behind novel wasn’t enough, so the creators made about a dozen sequels and two movies. That wouldn’t do, so now there are at least two prequels on the market.
What’s next, you ask? Newsweek reports [1] that the Left Behind: Eternal Forces video game is due in the second half of this year:
The game revolves around New Yorkers who are “left behind” after the rapture. Players scour the streets for converts, training them into a work force to feed, shelter and join a paramilitary resistance against the growing forces of the Antichrist.
Left Behind Games CEO Troy Lyndon, whose company went public in February, says the game’s Christian themes will grab the audience that didn’t mind gore in “The Passion of the Christ.” “We’ve thought through how the Christian right and the liberal left will slam us,” says Lyndon. “But megachurches are very likely to embrace this game.” Though it will be marketed directly to congregations, Forces will also have a secular ad campaign in gaming magazines.
Yeah, sounds like loads of fun. I’m not much of a gamer, but I’d take Call of Duty [2] or Medal of Honor [3] any day over this. My prediction: the game will belly-flop harder than the Left-Behind movie and the remaining unsold copies will mysteriously vanish.
What’s more disconcerting than an inane video game is Troy Lyndon’s notion of the megachurch as a market.