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NEED TO KNOW
- Jake Thomas played Matt McGuire in Lizzie McGuire, and was also featured in Cory in the House
- Now, he’s stepping into the world of digital gaming, playing Marco Silva in the new game MindsEye
- The game, which has been in development for more than four years, will be released on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC on June 10
Jake Thomas is used to being in front of the camera. But his latest gig is definitely something different.
The former Disney star who played Matt McGuire in Lizzie McGuire, and was also featured in Cory in the House, is stepping into the world of digital gaming, playing Marco Silva in the new game MindsEye.
“The video game itself is this massive action-adventure, highly cinematic game that really feels almost like you’re playing a movie,” Thomas tells PEOPLE exclusively over Zoom. “I play the character of Marco Silva, who is an eccentric billionaire, who runs Silva Corp.”
Walt Disney Enterprises/Courtesy Everett Collection
But long before the finished product, Thomas got a firsthand look at the magic of game development and says watching himself become a digital character was one of the wildest parts of the process.
“Everything is digital, but it’s me in the game, which is wild to me,” Thomas says. “I got completely scanned into the game, and they’ve basically just made a digital version of me. They’ve aged me up just a little bit, but it’s a digital version of me.”
“We used cutting-edge technology to scan my face as I was doing these performances,” he adds. “So everything you’re seeing of me in the video game is all of my facial movements, all the nuance, everything like that. It’s like I’m there, but just in digital form. It’s kind of crazy.”
“I get to do all my own stunts, which is fantastic,” he continues. “Although — I mean, I’m not jumping off any buildings in real life. In the digital world, maybe, but yeah, I got to do that from the safety of a studio.”
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The game, which has been in development for more than four years, will be released on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC on June 10. To mark the occasion, Thomas will go live on Twitch, streaming the game with fans throughout release week.
“It’s all very exciting and the story is just going to knock your socks off,” Thomas says.
