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NYT on Big Media Games Interest
The New York Times (registration required) has an article entitled Blockbuster With a Joystick, discussing the recent interest big media companies have had in game developers. From the article "What is driving the flurry is Hollywood's newfound respect for the profits earned by video game makers. Until recently, movie studios were happy to license their films to game developers...But as the profit margin on video games has remained around a healthy 25 percent - three times that of the average motion picture - the interest of companies like Disney has increased."
I haven't played Kingdom hearts, but Stunt Island was advanced for its time.
God spoke to me.
February 7, 2005
Blockbuster With a Joystick
By LAURA M. HOLSON
OS ANGELES, Feb. 6 - Ten years after being burned in their first attempts to combine movies and television with the video game business, media companies now seem willing to press the play button again.
Wall Street is rife with speculation that various media companies are on the hunt to acquire a video game maker like Activision or Electronic Arts. Studios are more aggressively licensing their television and movie properties to game makers. And the pitches for video game-inspired movies have made lunch at Spago sound more like the computer club at a junior high school.
At last week's Walt Disney Company conference in Orlando, Fla., investors were told that the company was in discussions to buy multiple game development studios and would spend nearly $50 million to develop the business. Disney executives are scouring their vast library of action films like "Armageddon," "Gone In Sixty Seconds" and the two-part "Kill Bill" for ideas for the next blockbuster game.
Such activity is a far cry from a year ago, when the video game business "was not one we or any other media company would touch," said Andy Mooney, the head of Disney's consumer products division.
What is driving the flurry is Hollywood's newfound respect for the profits earned by video game makers. Until recently, movie studios were happy to license their films to game developers, Mr. Mooney said. But as the profit margin on video games has remained around a healthy 25 percent - three times that of the average motion picture - the interest of companies like Disney has increased.
"There is a pressure on all of us to grow our business," said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "It looks really attractive - like many things - on the surface."
Under the surface, however, video games remain a risky and unproven test for media companies.
The most successful games are franchises unto themselves. With the exception of the recent games based on Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies, the sales of movie-based games pale beside those of the alien-fighting "Halo" games and the violent "Grand Theft Auto" series, where players score points for shooting pedestrians and beating up prostitutes.
"It's not a one-size-fits-all business and there is no silver bullet," Mr. Mooney said. "Once you get past the 'Let's spend billions and go buy a game company stage,' you have to ask yourself, 'What is the right strategy?' "
Media companies have dreamed of crossover successes before. In the 1970's and 1980's, many studios acquired book publishers in the hopes of mining their titles for movie ideas. Later, Hollywood film producers tried to combine book publishing with movie making. Neither attempt panned out.
In the 1990's, DreamWorks SKG, Time Warner, Disney and others sought to build their own video game divisions, only to falter under the weight of high development costs or too little expertise. Some companies, like DreamWorks, sold their game divisions, while others scaled back and incorporated their games business into their technology units.
Those failures are part of the reason that smaller game developers have flourished. The culture that has persisted among developers is one in which they retain their entrepreneurial flair, while movies and television are mature businesses. And video game makers have yet to adopt the diva qualities and corrupting influence of star power that is more common in Hollywood
"There will naturally be culture clashes if they try to move these cultures together," said Neil Young, the executive in charge of production at Electronic Arts. "There is not a culture of fear in our industry. We are not afraid to fail."
The big media companies - where fear of failure is almost a job requirement - have taken vastly different approaches to exploiting the video game phenomenon this time around.
Disney is publishing its own game based on the comin
Before the inevitable "video games are replacing movies" posts, it's worth noting that this has already been attempted and didn't go anywhere. Disney and Dreamworks (and others, to a lesser extent), sold off their movie divisions last decade. And these video games are clearly being driving by the movie market, rather than movie studios having decided they're in the wrong industry.
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One part of TFA that made me wince: "'There will naturally be culture clashes if they try to move these cultures together," said Neil Young, the executive in charge of production at Electronic Arts. "There is not a culture of fear in our industry. We are not afraid to fail.' The big media companies - where fear of failure is almost a job requirement - ...."
Either fear of failure is not so troublesome for media companies as the article supposes -- for Disney, the media company around which much speculation revolves -- or there are some poor sap Imagineers living in hellish, oft-reinforced fear under their Mouse ears. Disney has had plenty of flops, total flops! They put out an incredible amount of content, much of which goes almost nowhere. I'm not Disney-bashing -- obviously, from this they have had their historic success and let's all share a moment of profound respect for a cultural empire which has defined a mythology much of the world loves.
I just don't look at Disney's output and think "fear of failure." I look at this article, and think "fear of mediocrity leads to overwriting." Entertainment and gaming, not so different methinks.
BG
It doesn't appear that registration is required for this one. It loaded just fine for me without registering.
So in other words a huge media conglomerates might be interested buying a huge game publishers so they don't have to worry about accquiring the rights to big game franchises to make crappy movies from them.
Not that I have a problem with this. I just hate huge media congloms talk as if there's going to be tremendous cinergy between a huge movie studio and game studio. There is potential there in theory. Video games are a mix of all kinds of media( gameplay, music, video). Having a great game is made even better if the cut scenes have a great story and and a cinematic element to it. But in practice film makers, making a movie from a game, and game makers, making a game from a movie, are usually content with resting on the popularity of the big name they've accquired and just making a mediocre game or movie.
All I'm saying is that movie makers should worry about making a good movie first and game makers should worry about making a good game first before they attempt to cross over any elements between the two.
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
use New York Times Link Generator or BugMeNot.com.
For better or worse I think it's inevitable that Hollywood is going to start sucking face with the game industry. I think that the reason the two industries didn't blend well the last time was because games lacked the visceral qualities of film, so turning movies into games always fell flat. The games always felt like ten pounds of lame ass when compared to the bigger than life blockbusters. And the story lines of games weren't deep enough to turn into a film. Not to mention that a decade ago the average age of gamers was significantly younger than it is now, leading to more immature content. You didn't have the kind of hard hitting story lines that we are beginning to see in games today that could potentially make interesting film franchises. Nowadays, games are getting pretty realistic. The visuals are more stunning by the day (so much so that one gamespot.com reviewer said an in-game stripper gave him a chubby - his words, not mine), and with more disc space, the stories are getting deeper and more impressive. As Hollywood talent finds itself drawn more and more into video games (Bryan Singer - director of X-men 1 and 2 is developing a game, Vin Diesel got involved, and countless actors such as Samuel L. Jackson are making high-profile appearances in games) it only makes sense for the studios to follow the talent (and money, of course) Now, I'm not saying any of this is a good idea, or something that gamers or film goes should be happy about, just that it makes fiscal sense. As games get even more photo-realistic on the next generation of consoles, the line between film and game is going to blur even further. And lord knows games make money. All we can really do is hope that when Hollywood buys a game company, they give us the video game equivalent of The Shawshank Redemption and not Dude, Where's My Car?