Movies and Their Video Game Children

1. Movies and Their Video Game Children Why somebody should implement population control on the movie and video game offspring

2. Movies as Games • A lot of game companies produce games that are based on movies or television. (X-Men, 24, Dragon Ball Z, Star Wars) • Fans of those movies and shows often would love to assume the identity of the characters, or re-enact the stories that they love.

3. Over the Past Year • Gamespot.com previews and reviews games that are released for all systems • Since January 1st, 2006: 103 games have been released and reviewed that are based on shows or movies. • The average rating (out of 10) is 6.3 • The lowest rating was 2.1 (Land of the Dead) • The highest rating was 8.7 (Kingdom Hearts)

4. The Games • Some of the games are released for every available system: (Curious George, Cars, Family Guy, Flushed Away, Lego Star Wars II, Barnyard, Monster House, The Ant Bully) • With the exception of Lego Star Wars II and Cars, these mass released games didn’t score above 7.5

5. Electronic Gaming Monthly • Electronic Gaming Monthly released an article titled “5 reasons why games based on movies suck” • They're just products. Said games are merely marketing extensions, not end-products. Ergo, their quality is lacking. • They have to ship by the premiere. By relying on a film's release buzz to increase game sales, developers must ship a title on time. • They're someone else's IP. Developers are compelled to comply with executive wishes, even if the overall product is compromised. • They suffer from copycat syndrome. Developers play it safe with games (see no. 2) leveraging proven mechanics even copying previous games in favor of pushing the creative envelop. • They clone the flick. If you've seen the movie, you pretty much know the storyline.

6. Responses • At http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/5-reasons-why-games-based-on-movies-suck/ there is a discussion forum based around this EGM article. One response I found interesting was: • I'm in the games industry, so I know a little bit about how this works..1) For the majority of the cases, it's the developer who approaches the studio for the license, not the other way around. EA bought the rights to James Bond, Lord of the Rings, etc, not the. Activision bought the rights to Marvel games. The cases of actually "marketing extensions" is the rare exception. If this is what EGM says, they have no idea how the games industry works.2) I can remember as many games that slipped the movie premiere as the ones who made it. Games are still sw products, and are subject to problems of sw products, including slipped dates.

7. Continued… • 3) Since your first assertion is false, the product is rarely controlled by the IP holder's wishes. EA had control with how James Bond, LOTR, etc played, since they have the rights to develop the game. Sony, or whoever is the IP holder is, has very little input on the gameplay.4) Um - most games suffer from the copycat syndrome. So do most movies.5) Storyline doesn't dictate gameplay.It's true that many movie games suck, but some movie games are also good. It's also true that most games suck, and most movies suck, and only a few are successful. I don't know if it's true that movie games suck at a higher percentage, but if they do, they're not because of the reasons you stated.- Posted at 3:24AM on Oct 19th 2006 by Bob

8. There are always good with the bad • There are quite good games based on movies and the like: • Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay • Lord of the Rings games • Most Star Wars games (because Lucas has his own game company) • Kingdom Hearts (loophole) • Goldeneye

9. Some Games That Shouldn’t Have… • ET • Total Recall • Superman 64 • Batman Begins • Previous Star Trek games • So on and so on…

10. In The End • Fanboys need love too.