Fox officially announces Family Guy Online, and dammit, Meg is in it

Really, Meg? Do you have to ruin this game, too? Fox has officially announced Family Guy Online, the upcoming browser-based 3D multiplayer game surrounding the not-so-lovely town of Quahog and its ... charming residents. In fact, when the game launches "exactly later this year," you can become of those residents. It's thanks to the Family Guy Online Character Creator, which fans can take advantage of now after registering, of course.

The Character Creator allows you to base your customized avatar off of existing characters from the Griffin family like Lois, Stewie, Peter, Chris and Brian, though he's locked at the moment. (Hey, at least Meg isn't a playable character.) Each family remember represents a character archetype, though they're pretty nebulous characteristics like "Throws Weight Around" and "Spaz Attack."

The amount of options you have to customize your character is remarkable, you know, for a game based on Family Guy. It shows that developer Roadhouse Interactive is taking great care with the franchise. And, according to an interview with Gamasutra, the game will be free to play and is aimed to fit in a sweet spot "between social games and hardcore online games called accessible games."

Other than that, what we know about the game is two writers for the show, Andrew Goldberg and Alex Carter, have an important role in the game's creation, and the game is being built on the Unity engine. How "accessible" gamers will deal with an extra download has yet to be seen, but maybe the news that at least Meg isn't heavily involved will entice them. Stupid Meg.

Are you now more or less excited about Family Guy Online? Are you that one person that's sad to see that Meg isn't a playable character? (Seriously, we'll find you.) Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.