Holy crap.
He's lost so much weight.

Wow, this is exciting. So there are respected, proven, movie people out there who are beginning to see games as a viable outlet for creativity now, as opposed to just another way to advertise a movie franchise. That's great news.

Let's see whether a movie director can go right in the game industry.

Given my experience with Peter Jackson's King Kong (the game, which Jackson was personally involved in), I have some faith in Jackson as a game designer.

given that many modern big budget directors are really more world builders than storytellers, i dont see why they cant make the switch.

He probably doesn't know how to design games, but he may be good at coming up with story concepts...

That depends if he thinks in experiences or images. To successfully create games you need to think about the user experience as a grand total of the interaction, images, sound and narrative. Of course you need to align yourself with great technical crafts people but a good director knows (and does) that. There is a reason why there are directors of photography etc. in movies. It would be great if more "visionary" people would enter the games industry. We have great craftspeople but few visionaries... At least in my opinion.

What would be even better if some of these guys with money on the periphery could back independent game creators and help their projects get the next level of development + exposure to build on some unique ideas. This was happening alot in the 90s with independent films like El Mariachi supported by Tarantino, Easy Rider backed by Burt Schneider of the "Monkees", or Robert Evans green-lighting stuff by Scorsese et al which was at the time considered quite risky [ but now canon ] ..

So yeah, visionaries with pockets coming to the party could be amazing way to bridge the divide between AAA game production and the wellspring of creativity happening at the grassroots level. I know people like George Miller has a bunch of people working for him who are super keen on both th' film + game sides. Suppose anyone coming up through the ranks has enough of a cultural engagement with games to see the opportunities and recognise it as our generation's medium ..


-- Chuan

I think the biggest challenge for him will be the interactive element, granted he may tell a good story but unless its fun to play he might as well stick to film.

Andre : Did you forget that some time ago, in this very galaxy, LucasArts created some of the best games ever ?

@ Jeremie good look out on the LucasArts mention

you're exactly right!

Yep, we need visionaries. Game people have a lot to learn from film people.

I'm on the fence about this, because even though I think he could have great success and come out with some awesome games, like Spielberg and Lucas have in the past, I partially agree with Andre, in that I think the game industry needs its own visionaries, not borrowed Hollywood ones. Otherwise, the mainstream media will only focus on these projects because of their big-name Hollywood visionaries while still not taking games, as a whole, seriously.

Those with a vision for experiences and a knack for storytelling are always welcome, I would say. I don't care if they come from movies, games, novels, comics, whatever. If you have the ability to guide the development of exceptional gaming experiences then I'm behind you 100%.

@Chad Metrick: If individual game designers won't stand up for themselves - and make their names known - others are forced to show them how it's done.

the reason why things stagnate is because it is like in every industry: once someone comes up with a big seller that's what everyone is going for. this only lasts until the next big idea comes up.

games still hold a huge potential because the technology is still developing at a very fast pace. i think especially story driven games will be a big thing in the future, so i would very much welcome people like peter jackson taking a shot at games.

King Kong the game was, in my opinion, phenomenally better than King Kong the movie.

Not really a fair comparison, seeing as the movie...well...

The game was still really awesome. And if the man wants to take a break from movies and take a tumble into the video games industry, I'd be very interested to see what he can do. With gaming, he knows what he's doing.

And dayumm Wolf Wozniak, ain't that the truth! He can finally trim that 'fat guy beard' because he's certainly got a neck to show off, now.

The designers' position in games and the director's position in film are completely different. Auteur theory in the 50s and 60s held that the director was the true creative force behind a film (though this marginalizes the great editors, scriptwriters, producers, cameramen, lighting/set designers) and this translated into the star director system we have today. Designers have no such critical champion, not to mention little critical theory backing them up, despite the acknowledged fact that they have the creative control. It is also, if you'll notice, designers plural, not THE DIRECTOR and EVERYBODY ELSE. While some Japanese studios have a game director position and most studios have a lead designer position, the emphasis in most studios on collaboration makes any one person's contribution to the creative design element hard to specify. So unless the industry decides to really entrust authorial/auteur vision to a single person rather than multiple people we aren't going to see gaming visionaries light up the industry in the same way we see movie directors take challenging creative decisions and produce great films. Maybe Miyamoto has "final cut" or total control, but I doubt many other designers do.

i think games could learn a lot more from film, not less. when games like Bioshock are considered the epitome of storytelling and depth, something is wrong.

Lund: "That depends if he thinks in experiences or images."

I think this is profound and true. And with Jackson, I lean towards the experiences side. He's obviously good at leveraging other people's skills towards a coherent vision. And he actually enjoys games, so he's probably not just going to be blowing through the office every couple months and stamping his name on the box as has been the case with other big movie directors.

@Dave Smith

I hear you man, I hear you.