Hollywood Courting the Gaming Industry

beatleadam writes "In a trend that we all seem to already be hyper-aware of... 'The video game industry was once an afterthought in Hollywood, at most an ancillary source of revenue like action figures. The people passionately developing the computer-based form of entertainment were seen as dorks compared with the celebrities. Not anymore. Now that games have matured into a $11 billion business, topping movie box-office sales and siphoning television viewers, the lucrative and increasingly influential genre has attracted more star power than ever.'" We did another story about this a month ago.

Vice City

[thebra]

Ray Liotta .... Tommy Vercetti (voice)
William Fichtner .... Ken Rosenberg (voice) (as Bill Fichtner)
Tom Sizemore .... Sonny Forelli (voice)
Dennis Hopper .... Steve Scott (voice)
Burt Reynolds .... Avery Carrington (voice)
Robert Davi .... Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez (voice)
Gary Busey .... Phil Cassidy (voice)

To name a few from GTA:Vice City [imdb.com] and I thought it made the game funnier.

bull$hit

[The Lynxpro]

"In a trend that we all seem to already be hyper-aware of... 'The video game industry was once an afterthought in Hollywood, at most an ancillary source of revenue like action figures. The people passionately developing the computer-based form of entertainment were seen as dorks compared with the celebrities. Not anymore. Now that games have matured into a $11 billion business, topping movie box-office sales and siphoning television viewers, the lucrative and increasingly influential genre has attracted more star power than ever.'"

Does anyone not know the history of the videogame industry on Slashdot? Try 1976. That was the year Warner Communications (think Warner Bros. Pictures) purchased Atari, Inc. By the early 1982, Atari accounted for 3/4's of Warner's profits. So in your analysis, you are 22 years off on the video game industry's importance to Hollywood.

Re:Oh dear god...

[tgibbs]

I don't see this lasting too long. The "Van Helsing", "Spider Man", and "X-Men" video games are weak, and get horrible reviews.

The Playstation Spider-Man game got good reviews and the PS2 sequel got fairly good reviews. The Capcom X-Men fighting games were extremely popular and got good reviews.

Re:bull$hit

[PCM2]

Does anyone not know the history of the videogame industry on Slashdot? Try 1976. That was the year Warner Communications (think Warner Bros. Pictures) purchased Atari, Inc. By the early 1982, Atari accounted for 3/4's of Warner's profits. So in your analysis, you are 22 years off on the video game industry's importance to Hollywood.

That's right -- and by 1983 they were in the toilet, racking up $500M in losses and burying unsold cartridges in landfills. [snopes.com] Interesting how those cartridges were movie tie-ins. Hmmmmm....

Re:More bad movie?

[astrokid]

Your definition of good may very but I thought that Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat were entertaining movies. Heres a short list: http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/january03/movies/ index.shtml Notice how it goes down hill very quickly.

Re:Does this mean we'll get to see

[beta21]

I am soo sorry to actually know this:

CounterStrike the movie [imdb.com]

Re:And Just Like Hollywood....

[Anonymous Coward]

The people who do all the work, see none of the pay.

But that's a growing trend here in America.

It was ever thus. Not just in America, either. Or would you rather be working down the mines as an 8-year-old for a pittance 150 years back?

Re:And Just Like Hollywood....

[Anonymous Coward]

And it's never encouraging to know that the tv "star" featuring in your game made more money in the two hours they sat reading a script in a sound studio than you'll make in the 18 months of overtime-ridden grind required to make the game.

Or so I hear... :)