Brutally realistic Paperboy reboot in the works

In the last few years, an increasing amount of long forgotten franchises have been pulled from the basement shelves and given a makeover, but none as surprising as this. A new studio -- named The Existant Game Company (tagline, "This game company totally exists, we swear!") -- has licensed the Paperboy franchise from Midway and announced they are developing a reboot of the series.

"We want to make it true to the present day newspaper delivery field." said lead programmer Imma Realname. "It won't necessarily be fun, but it'll be realistic to the plight of the everyday newspaper carrier, and that's what we were aiming for."

Somewhat a franchise reboot, the game story will also act as a sequel of sorts. You'll still be playing as Frank, the Paperboy, but he is now a Paperman. All grown up, he has ditched the old bicycle route and obtained a motor route that takes him way out into the country roads.

"The only obstacles you'll be avoiding will be those of nature. If you hit a deer, you'll have to use some of your constantly dwindling paycheck to get your car repaired. If you slide off into a ditch during the winter levels, you'll have to pay for a tow truck. Basically, you'll just be driving the exact same route every single day; taking care to stop and deliver to every one of your active customers, and if you mess anything up, you'll have to deal with paying for it." said Imma excitedly.

The press release detailed the main game structure thoroughly. Frank will have a set pay rate at the beginning of the game, but as his customer base slowly dwindles he will continuously earn less and less. On top of that, his pay will be cut every 3 levels, and things will go wrong with his car on a regular basis, making it hard to keep up with the bill payments required to move onto the next level.

"Essentially, you just keep playing the same level over and over again until you mess up enough that you can't pay your bills, or you reach a pay rate that makes paying your bills a complete impossibility. Oh, or the newspaper that employs you could go out of business. There's a 50% chance of that happening at the start of every level."

Personally, I'm kind of excited for the game. Video games could certainly use a dose of reality. Will you be picking it up on release?