Horror guru unveils 'Jericho' game

Horror mastermind Clive Barker testified Tuesday to the crumbling walls between entertainment and games as he unveiled his upcoming video game at an industry conference. Jericho, a gory horror piece set in a remote desert outpost, was originally conceived as a novel by Barker. But the concept soon took hold in his imagination as a game, which will be released in the fall.

"Maybe if games hadn't existed, I would have said, 'Make it a movie,'" Barker said at the second annual Hollywood and Games Summit in Hollywood. "But I much prefer the idea of having 20 hours to play this world, to enter this labyrinth." The man behind the Hellraiser franchise dismissed skeptics of video games, noting that with just two decades of history under its belt, the equivalent of a War and Peace game might be on the horizon. "We can't be highhanded or condescending," Barker cautioned. "This is a very important area right now, and not just because it's making a lot of money."