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

Cut Scenes

[n0wak]

They speak different languages. A cut scene in a game is a pre-rendered scene inserted between game play to advance the story. In film, a cut scene is something that lands on the cutting-room floor that nobody sees.

This is a case where I'd like to see games act more like movies. Cut the cut-scenes, and give me gameplay.

Wonderful...

[Dark Nexus]

Now we can go see even MORE horrible movies based on video games, and even MORE horrible video games based on movies!

But then, maybe I'm just being cynical and they WON'T just sit back on their liscences and rely on the known name of the game/movie for the other to succeed.

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.