Agents Capitalize On Videogame Popularity

Thanks to WXXI/LA Times for their article discussing the new breed of agents and brokers capitalizing on Hollywood's infatuation with video games. According to the piece: "Pamela Colburn... an investment banker who once managed billion-dollar hostile takeovers, now worries about whether actors who appear buff on movie screens will seem puny in video games alongside pixelated monsters." The reason for this increase in interest? The article explains: "A decade ago, when the $25-billion global games industry was less than half the size it is today, there was little need for agents because game technology wasn't advanced enough to support dramatic music scores, lifelike animation, spectacular explosions and lengthy dialogue - in short, the kind of cinematic experiences common in games today."

Comments

Blurring boundaries

[tiled_rainbows]

My guess is that movies and games are going to get closer until they are not so much two separate media but a continuum, with totally traditional, non-interactive linear films at one end, totally freeform, nonlinear games at the other end, and all this other stuff in between. It's the in-between bits that we've only just started exploring. But I reckon you won't get 'the game of the film' or 'the film of the game', but just the 'game/film/generical entertainment thingy', possibly with a user-definable level of interactivity.
For all those of you who have ever shouted at your TV screen when the character in an otherwise OK movie make a really dumb move, this is a Good Thing.

My other prediction is that most of the stuff produced by the big studios will be mindless pap as always, but also, as always, people will continue to produce the odd title that is genuinely fun or beautiful or thought-provoking.

Get these people out of here

[Lord_Dweomer]

I wish to god some other billion dollar industry would spring up for Hollywood to capitalize on. Seriously, LEAVE MY DAMN GAMES ALONE! I hate that...whenever something cool comes along and is underground....or at least not as commercialized as everything else in the world....Hollywood always decides to make it the 'next big thing' and they butcher it in the process. I don't want some agent ruining a game by making them take the lifelike gore out just because it would look bad if her client got shot up in the game. Oh well, least they won't touch all the games I play.

forget tie-ins -- games need content

[isoSasquatch]

Buried in this article, which is mostly about big, stupid agents making big, stupid deals so that big, stupid movies can have big, stupid games to go with them, is an interesting mention of bringing a "Hollywood sensibility" to game-making. Vin Diesel having a game company may not fulfill that promise, but I would love to see more content-driven games where the story and the ideas behind the game drive it more than the technology that makes it possible. Since technology inevitably plateaus, game developers will have to eventually use content to sell games, which I hope will mean more writers working on games to make them more like interactive narrative experiences.

I feel like video games can be a narrative medium even more powerful than film, but game-makers have only scratched the surface of how it can be used to tell stories in a new way.

Re:What we have to look forward to?

[Sylver Dragon]

Mechwarrior? Movie? Hollywood quality special effects? HOLY SHITBALLS BATMAN!!! I think every single mech lover in the world has been dying to see mechs done up in a movie that looked extremely realistic. There have been a few mech movies so far...but they didn't look THAT good...except RoboJox or w/e it is. But this one is based on the Battletech universe, which makes me jump for joy.

I agree, I would love to see a good Mechwarrior movie, but therein lies the catch, a good Mechwarrior movie. I'm a little afraid that it will get the Wing Commander treatment. I loved the Wing Commander series, and when I heard they were doing a movie, I thought, great this should be cool. Sadly, the acting is so bad in that movie, its painful. They would have done better to simply use the cut-scenes out of the video game. Then you have Tomb Raider, I wasn't a fan of the games, but boy did that first movie ever screw that title up. I still haven't bothered with the second one, and probably won't unless it comes on TV and I am too drunk to reach the remote.
I guess the point to this rant is, has a game ever been made into to a good movie? Even outside of video games, the prospects aren't that good. D&D? If ever there was a more fetid, steaming, pile of crap, I've not seen it. Anybody know of a game to movie port that was worth the time to watch?