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Playboy gets into gaming with Poisonville

In an attempt to tap men 18-35, the bunny company is bringing its brand and its babes to a browser near you.

Matt Hickey
With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. Matt is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. E-mail Matt.
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Matt Hickey

Poisonville screenshot
Playboy is attempting to target male gamers 18-35 with cars, weapons, and girls. BigPoint

Playboy is getting into gaming. Welcome to Poisonville, a new massively multiplayer online game that looks like a sexed-up version of Grand Theft Auto and Mafia Wars with "Playboy caliber" women throughout.

In the MMOG, players portray a member of one of four gangs in a fictional U.S. city that's overrun with corruption. They must try to regain respect while driving a bunch of different cars and fighting one another and hanging out with virtual, fully 3D girls in clubs. It's like my life, but a game.

Playboy teamed with German game company BigPoint, which designed the free-to-play browser-based title. It's part of Playboy's current push to take its brand more mainstream, much like its new "safe for work" site, The Smoking Jacket.

But Poisonville is just the first game from the new gaming label, though what the actual name of the label is--let alone what other games are coming--is still unknown.