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 didnt 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 324AM 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 Shouldnt 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.