Hollywood Is Communicating with the Gaming Industry Differently

Hollywood is representative of the movie industry and of all of the good and bad things it has done to society since the birth of movie-making. For some time now, it has developed a relationship with video game companies, which have created both game-based movies and movie-based games.

But while this collaboration between the two entities hasn't offered the best outcomes, things will certainly change, as it has become something completely natural to see that a video game is released at the same time with a theatrical launch of a movie and the fact that big IPs such as BioShock are preparing to make their silver-screen debut.

Now, a few developers that are working on movie-based titles, like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, have talked about their jobs, which focus on delivering a great experience, not a spin-off that brings forth the movie in an interactive format.

“Movie games have a bad history,” Jeff Poffenbarger, senior producer at X-Men Origins: Wolverine, says. “There is a stigma to movie games, for a thousand different reasons. They come out and they don't live up to the hype people create. For us, it was all about creating the definitive Wolverine experience, not recreating the movie.”

“I think Hollywood is communicating with the games industry on a different level now,” Joby Otero, one of the developers who is working on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, explains. “There's a recognition that a game's quality can impact the overall franchise. I think part of the reason is that more of the key creative decision makers grew up as gamers themselves. There's an understanding of how wrong these things can go.”

With such blockbuster titles, in terms of both movies and video games, it seems that at least movie-based ones are beginning to elevate the quality bar and be on par with already established video game franchises. Hopefully, for the sake of all players, things will follow with game-based movies and we won't have to fear that our favorite titles are being “slaughtered” by Hollywood.