Hollywood Courting the Gaming Industry 201
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.
Oh dear god... (Score:1, Insightful)
Why doesn't Disney just fund companies like id or epic games so they can have more developers who can turn around games quicker, create better engines, etc
Great (Score:4, Insightful)
Stuck up "actors" I don't like doing their normal piss-poor job of acting on high budget, yet poorly designed ( technologically and cinamantically ) games that I will never play, opting for net hack.
Further, let's turn a cheezy game into a movie! Yeah, it'll be slop, so people will pay us MILLIONS to bad mouth it.
And you know what? We will. At the end of the day, the execs know that we will fork over our cash for crap because we are told to do so.
In closing, let me leave you with this thought: Moo.
interactive content (Score:4, Insightful)
MHO is that hollywood is seeing the dollars. you make a bunch of CGI movies or even real movie like ROTK and TTT and you add some animated version of the main hero that you control doing some punching/sword swinging and they get $50 for their DVD/Movie vs $15-$30 for their movie.
they are going to be more similar in the future (Score:5, Insightful)
With the level of detail and complexity of new games this will slow down to 3 or 4 games a year per company. Time will tell when small computer game developers will join efforts in order to deliver huge games quick ($$$) ending with like about 4 mayor gaming factories, with fictional characters, some celebrities and some young programmer waiting to get his(her) big break. Is this where games are going?
While this is the case... (Score:1, Insightful)
irc.gnaa.us #gnaa
Just look at the site for Van Helsing... (Score:5, Insightful)
If shitty advertisements disguised as films are the best Hollywood can put out, it's no wonder they need the video game industry. I'll take an Enix or Blizzard (well, make that ArenaNet) game over another Matrix sequel any day.
Good for games, bad for movies (Score:3, Insightful)
Having quality voice talent in games is a plus.
Having bad action movies based on games is a minus.
So that explains the decline (Score:4, Insightful)
Mono-Directional Wormhole (Score:4, Insightful)
This does not follow when the roles are reversed; I have yet to witness a game based on a movie that was successful in any respect (unless someone can convince me otherwise). Even as a huge matrix fan, I have not been the least bit interested in playing Enter The Matrix [enterthematrixgame.com].
As long as the movies make money, Hollywood will still make them, even if they are raffish.
It's a shame... (Score:4, Insightful)
Games from movies... ok. Movies from games...nah. (Score:5, Insightful)
If they can make games like this that actually have depth to them, instead of a shooter with just a level from each scene of the movie, I am all for it.
But I think there is going to be a problem seeing a movie based on a video game. You already have in your mind, a set perception of the game and how it should go.
Kinda like reading a book and then seeing the movie. It always seems like the movie sucks compared to what you had read.
Video game cost sure to ensue... (Score:3, Insightful)
You can bet damn sure they're going to get that $20 out of your wallet one way or another. Even if they have to devour another market to do so.
Ironically, you'll pay more for them to do that.
Re:Oh dear god... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Courting? (Score:5, Insightful)
What would we have gotten if Atari had continued to dominate back-in-the-day? More Atari 2600 Pac-Man probably. That brief recession allowed us to get the NES. Cool upgrade, eh? But,now we're getting yet another stupid James Bond game on PS-2. It needs to die so people will at least try to reinvent gaming into something better instead of continuing to push hollywoodfied, star-studded crap.
TW
Re:interactive content (Score:3, Insightful)
yeah, but hopefully you'll get more than 2 hours of enjoyment out of the game.
My fear is when real high speed broadband is every where. Then I think video games and movies will be on a pay per play/view system.
Imagine $$$$/month forever because they've linked your cable, internet, home security,phone and your video games into one providor.
Bah! (Score:2, Insightful)
We still have a long way to go before we're really like Hollywood, and not just for recognition. There's also the model used for game development and marketing. But I've not the time to go on a complete diatribe, so you can Google about it.
Re:It's a shame... (Score:4, Insightful)
Has anyone ever designed a computer game with the same design principles that go into board games? (replayability, consistency, good rule sets, etc) Nope. Computer games don't even publish any rules because they're only meant to last 2 months anyway. Seems like there some kind of market there.
Re:Oh dear god... (Score:3, Insightful)
Another title that has transitioned well from movie to game is the James Bond series. Back on the N64 Goldeneye rocked.
Another title the Alien vs. Predator series got its start with two movies. The second game was awesome. I especially loved playing as the face hugger looking for a victim and then getting to burst from his chest. The marine campaign actually managed to make me jump out of my chair.
My $0.02!
The truth of the matter is this. All the love, attention and skill you turn upon mud pie will not make it into an edible concoction. Inversely, the most succulent ingredients in the hands of an inept chef will render the results inedible. Sorry Heinlein. A long winded way of saying that start with crap you're pretty much guaranteed crap at the end, but start with the best of material and you can still end up with crap if you're not careful. Nothing is a guaranteed formula for sucees.
The latest debacle of the Tomb Raider movie people claiming the video game people killed the movie with their poor game illustrates the point nicely.
Re:Sims movie (Score:3, Insightful)
it sounds like the early days on the movie industry where studios would sign actors/personalities and they wouldnt be allowed to go work on things outside the studio's movies.
Re:Oh dear god... (Score:3, Insightful)
Another example of an excellent game adaptation is the first Buffy game (although the second was not as good). And the Matrix games seemed like a decent effort, with serious support from the movie producers, even though the games didn't quite come off.
Re:And Just Like Hollywood.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Games and Movies are halfway steps (Score:5, Insightful)
Both video games and movies are basically 20th century mediums. And as such they are now halfway steps to a new 21st century medium: an interactive digitally-generated photography.
Combine synthetic animation such as the AnaNova newscaster with quasi-AI like the classic Eliza program, voice recognition, on-line anonymous interaction with thousands of strangers presenting their image to you as 'avatars'. Have it semi-scripted by Hollywood screenwriters and directors. Run it on multiprocessor systems that are 1 or 2 orders of magnitude more powerful than today's systems.
You get an entirely new medium that makes today's movies and games look as dull as Super-8 family movies and silent film tricks from a hundred years ago. There are some people in Hollywood that realize that movies are about to go the way of Vaudeville in the next twenty years
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Re:Games and Movies are halfway steps (Score:2, Insightful)
Part of this is due to expensive game software (Score:2, Insightful)