| Tim Carter |
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This might actually have something to do with the way games have evolved.
Movies live in a "dream-like space". Games, on the other hand, put players through a "measured ordeal" that requires the audience to jump through a bunch of hoops. Something that can be far from the spontaneous dreamlike unfolding of a story. One wonders if a new syntax could be built on the game side to match this... (Something without quicktime events perhaps?...) |
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| Brian Bartram |
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Perhaps because licensed games became the shame of the industry. Much like Atari's hubris prior to their fall, purveyors of games based on movie and tv licenses were known to eschew quality for being out on the same date as the movie. I've worked on a Transformers title and felt like a mercenary - hired to do a mediocre job "quick and dirty" with a tiny budget and ridiculously short development schedule. The reasoning was that just putting "Transformers" on the box would sell more copies than bothering to make a game that is actually, you know... fun - as long as it's on the shelves the day the movie comes out.
I, for one, welcome this news. |
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| sarah Drew |
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Great Article, but I have to insist that THQ and other developers consider the idea, that kids can experience their favourite movies as a game, in more depth before dismissing movie-game projects.
I think it is possible that childrens games featuring familiar elements from movies, toys, books or popular media enforces the child to perform more complex tasks and fully recieve the benefits of gaming in a familiar environment, participating in problem solving and cognitive tasks. I think the problem is the tasks are not difficult enough. Children are capable of more than people assume, so a movie-game should not just incorporate the familiar themes, characters or other conventions but also themeatically connect the complexity of the game mechanics to the situations of the characters. The movie-games fail because it is commonly believed that movie games are a smaller budget cash grabs of the movies popularity and the quality of the game itself becomes tarnished before it even has a chance. If movie-games for kids are to be successful they must be taken seriously as a way to tranform a childs awareness of themes and principles of morale such as childrens media demands and the developers must concentrate on that first and foremost. It might also be a good way to introduce new gameplay mechanics for kids, just another benefit of working with a familiar environment. Sales will boost when people become educated about the benifits of the movie-game! Nonetheless I am excited to see what changes THQ's big titles are going to bring! |
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| Jon Gregory |
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Guess this means Activision's plethora of bad games that aren't Call of Duty will grow now. They don't directly preside over anything else that's remotely worth playing and Call of Duty is up for debate on whether or not it's worth it. They fund Blizzard... but they don't have much say over what they do... obviously. Or there would be a boatload of WoW titles floating around right now.
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| scott stevens |
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The problem with movie-game tie in projects are that the movie studios do not want to start the game for the property until the movie is nearly finished, which leaves precious little time for developers to put a quality effort forward.
I've experienced this first-hand with my studio Tall Chair, Inc. when we worked with Warner Bros. for Sherlock Holmes Mysteries on the iPhone and iPad. I want to be clear that working with the team at Warner Bros. Digital Distribution was on the whole a great experience - they're a good bunch of people. The problems we had were all schedule related. The project did not even get green-lit until there was only two months before the movie came out, which of course meant two months of crazy shifts for me and my team. If the movie industry wants to have quality interactive experiences based on properties that they would like to showcase, then they are going to have to bring the game developers in at an earlier stage of the project. A quality game cannot be an afterthought or an add-on. |
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| Eric Carr |
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I wonder if the downturn has something to do with the parents becoming more knowledgeable. I would assume that many of the sales came from the name on the box, which works great if the purchaser (ie - parent) doesn't know anything about the games themselves. Parents of the kids that would play these titles (5-9 years old, with parents that are 20-40) would have grown up playing games, and know that licensed games generally are not terribly good for a variety of reasons.
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| Marc-Olivier Beaupre |
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First, most of the movie games are shovelware that cost almost 60$.
Second, creating a movie and making a video game or vice versa has never been that successful. There is a difference between making a good(selling) video game from a movie character like Batman : Arkham Asylum when they created a brand new story unrelated to a movie. Third, the future in 'movie games' is in social games because they are the one who usually go see the movie. A well made iPhone Avatar game could sell a ton or a Cars Facebook game could possibly attract millions of 'gamers'. |
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| Sue Barbs |
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I love the movie and I don't know if I would love the game too. I 'm so happy that the game makes are more advanced now and it made kids today more techie than we were their age.
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| Robert Gill |
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Love the pic, because if you look at it, you'll realize that's the summary of the article. That's all that I feel compelled to say :)/
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| Carlo Delallana |
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I say it depends on the movie
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| Tadej Fius |
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of course the concept no longer sells !!!! most of games made from movies suck big time, they are using 20 year old ideas of game play. Just making a game with some art from the movie, with game play of running and jumping around and giving a game the title of a movie (there are great example of fabulous movie and mind insulting games) is not really inventing and entertaining.
I agree, try to capture the idea of the story from the movie, and you'll be hitting your head against the concrete brick for quite some time, not an easy task at all, let alone to make it as good as the movie was. Yet years have passed and none of the studios did anything inventing, just wasting resources into plagiatorism of gameplay. Well, they got me at some titles, just because kids saw a familiar picture on the box. But now they already say: "Eh, this is from the movie, it is probably the same as the other one's, rather boring" There is more entertainment in a statement coming from 5 year old, than in the whole game. I say, studios brought this onto themself. Wasted such great movies into such horrible games. Rapeing the market with bad games and now ... its all turning back on them. copycats. |
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| Mark Venturelli |
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Costumers never get smarter, but they do get wiser!
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| Lo Pan |
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I wonder if movie/cartoon based games are already labeled with a scarlet letter before they even come out? For kids games, it is obvious that a game targeted to a 6-12 year old can't be properly reviewed by a 21 year old reviewer on a steady diet of Warcraft and COD. Movie games do suck, but the suckage is not as bad as it was 3-5 years ago. I think there are teams out there doing their best to 'reverse' the trend of suck for movie games. I like what Marvel and DC is doing with their movie/comic games.
Also I think the license fee/charge makes a significant dent in the game budget. |
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| Aaron Casillas |
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Majority of the time the game becomes an extension of the marketing campaign for the movie versus an extension of the world. This leads to major game production problems like getting your hands on the screenplay, making a linear movie experience into an interactive experience etc...
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| Joe McGinn |
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Yo THQ, 2009 called, it wants it's news back! About time THQ caught up with everyone else who knew this two years ago.
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