One of the most important aspects of marketing videogames is branding. In fact, branding is a key factor to marketing anything in any industry. A good brand name goes a long way, which is why videogame producers are constantly on the hunt for established brands from movies, TV shows, or music. Brand awareness is also why some of the biggest, most talked about games at E3 were movie-to-game titles such as Scarface: The World is Yours, Pirates Of The Caribbean and X-Men: The Official Game.
Movies are especially attractive brands for videogame companies because a popular movie can spawn many different games. They also spawn sequels and spin-offs, which means even more game possibilities. There’s a built-in fanbase and public awareness, plus the game can be tied into the movie studio’s marketing and publicity campaign. Best of all, the success or failure of the film is not necessarily indicative of how the game will do. Just take Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, which was based on a film that only did around $50 million, yet the game was a runaway success.
“One of the cool things about [a] movie is that it’s a very visual experience and people that enjoy it really want to get into the characters and experience it firsthand, and the game allows you to have a more interactive level of the movie experience,” says Activision Associate Producer Chris Palmisano, who worked on X-Men: The Official Game. “I’ve played a lot of different movie games and some have really resonated more than others. I always like to be able to play the characters as they are in the movie and be able to control them.”
One type of movie-based game that has gained popularity over the last few years is the remake of the vintage classic film. Films like Warriors, Terminator, Robocop, Predator, The Thing, Evil Dead, and The Godfather have inspired popular games, while upcoming game remakes of Dirty Harry, Jaws, and Scarface are set to breathe new life into these franchises. The titles are especially attractive to game-makers because the fan base is already there, people are already familiar with the plot and characters, there’s no deadline in terms of coinciding with a theatrical release date, and there’s no risk of the film tanking (Hey, a box office bomb may not kill a game’s shelf-life, but it doesn’t help!).
“We take this really seriously, probably more seriously than most people take original IDs,” says Peter Wanat VU Games Executive Producer of Scarface: The World is Yours. “Other people are dying to go after original IDs. We look at what’s the next great film or television or book property that we can clamp our teeth into and change the perception of how those games are seen by not just the players but our industry as a whole.
“Whenever we make games based on films we try to find an isolated question, like, ‘What kind of brand fiction do you wanna extend?’ This is our third movie license with Universal in the last five years, the other two being The Thing and Chronicles of Riddick. So when we did The Thing, it was, ‘What happened to those guys after the film ends?’ You know, Kurt Russell is sitting there in the snow, like, do they survive? In Riddick’s case, it was, ‘How did Riddick escape from prison?’ So for Scarface, what would happen if Tony didn’t die? What would happen if he gets reborn through the game? So we start our game at the very end of the film and we allow the player to actually be the one to change the course of events from the movie. It’s a ‘see the movie, play the movie’ kind of experience.”
Another popular type of film to give inspiration to in the videogame world is the children’s movie. We all know kids love videogames, and, thanks to their parents, kids are the #1 box office draw these days at the ol’ theater too. So a good kid’s movie ID can mean big business for gamemmakers.
“We design our games much the way the movies are created these days, to kind of appeal to everyone,” noted Activision Associate Producer Lalie Fisher, who worked on Over the Hedge and the upcoming Shrek the Third. “Especially with a kids title, you hope it’s something that families will sit down and play together and that even older audience will play. They are games for everyone. Obviously you want to hit your target demographic, because that’s your main game players.
“You want to see what other kind of trouble the characters will get into, what sort of new adventures,” Fisher adds. “With a console title like Over the Hedge you try to follow the story of the movie a little bit and relive it, and you also to go above and beyond. The first couple levels are done at the training course and retell the story of the film to re-familiarize yourself, and then the rest of the game was a new experience. It’s kind of, ‘What happened after the movie left off?’”
This leads to an interesting aspect of developing a movie into a game: creative control. When it comes to movie-based games, a big question for a game producer is how much creative freedom will the filmmakers allow them to have? Obviously, the movie is already scripted, and the characters are already established, so the game makes have to work within the world the film has set up. They have to work the movie studios, writers, directors and even actors to decide what they can get away with, and how much creative license they can take with these titles. Does their game have to follow the exact plot of the film? Can they riff on the plot and fill in what might have happened, or can they abandon the plot all together and simply create a new story? Filmmakers can be very territorial over their titles, so making a cool game that expands on elements of a film can be a tricky process.
“We’re very lucky. The studio has been exceptional in working with us,” says Disney Online VP of Premium Products Steve Parkis, who worked on the massive multiplayer version of Pirates Of The Caribbean. “They really embraced that and let us run with that. We haven’t had any issues and it’s been a very seamless experience. As long as we’re true to the franchise and keep Jack Sparrow being Jack Sparrow, and are in the environment you associate with the movie and ride, we’re given a lot of rope.”
“We worked closely with Zack Penn, who wrote X2 and X3,” says Palmisano of X-Men: The Official Game. “It gave us a really solid footing to make sure that we were totally fitting in with the timeline. It’s hard for developers to know what’s happening in the movie sometimes, so if you work with the writers, it really gives you a leg up. We worked really closely with Fox and Marvel and had really good exposure to early revisions of the script. That enabled us to make a really cool movie game.”
Making a game based on a movie is tough enough, but try making a game based on a movie based on a book. That’s where things can get a little sticky…especially if that book is a best seller that’s set the world on its ear. With The Da Vinci Code, “the game follows the book really closely, and the movie follows the book, so they are pretty close. I’d say the balance is about 60% of the movie to 40% of the original videogame,” calculates 2K Games Game Tester Jason Bondhun, who tested The Da Vinci Code game. “The characters go through the main story, and then go off into other elements we’ve added. Sophie Neveu goes to the third level, while Robert Langdon goes off and does his thing. They go to the same environments as the movie, but different things happen. Like when you go to the Bank of Zurich, you get in shootouts. Like, they get the cryptex from the bank, but different characters show up. So it’s the same stuff, but different and with more action. There’s zero fighting in the book, and since The Collective (who developed the game for 2K) have done combat, fighting games, they threw some combat in there. It makes it more of a gaming experience.”
The bottom line is that if you have a solid title (new or old), a creative game staff, and the cooperation of the movie studio, you’re well on your way to making a great movie based game. You may have to work within set guidelines, and you may or may not get the kind of freedom the folks above had with their games, but if the filmmakers want to extend their brand into the videogame realm, then they are likely to turn to the developers and listen to what they have to say. I mean, these guys do this for a living, right? These gaming guys have their finger on the pulse of the gamers (i.e. – YOU), right? Riiiight.
Now go play!
Check out these other E3 2006 movie game features:
The Music of Scarface: The World Is Yours
Guns & Glory With The Scarface Videogame
Swashbuckling With Pirates of the Caribbean
Over The Edge With Over The Hedge & Shrek The Third
X-Men Game Au Go Go
