Quick Jump Daily Digest
Thank you for your interest in the Quick Jump Daily Digest. Get notified of all new content on QJ in our free Daily Digest. To subscribe, enter your email address below and click the subscribe button.
Leipzig GC 2006: Midway's Press Conference |
Listed in: PS3, Wii, PSP, Xbox 360, MMORPG, Nintendo DS Tags: Leipzig Games Convention, Midway Games
Ó
Although the Midway Games press conference at the Leipzig Games Convention featured a few of their upcoming projects like Unreal Tournament 2007 and Stranglehold and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the biggest news was an interesting idea: the game industry will outgrow the film industry in terms of revenue.
Why will games make companies richer than movies? Midway's CEO David Zucker had 3 good reasons:
- Games leverage what movies do well
- Games based on major movie licenses do well ("The Matrix" or "Lord of the Rings")
- Games don't do well if they're based on movies that make less than $300 million in the box office
- Games avoid movies that don't do well
- Games don't have the same massive production and marketing costs (although rising costs mean that about 1 million units of a next-gen game have to be sold to break; the average game production budget has soared to $15 million)
- Games don't have to pay actors and directors huge salaries (the Mortal Kombat characters in the picture above do look like a bunch of underpaid actors ready to riot)
- Games go beyond what movies can do
- Customization and fully interactive worlds offer a more immersive experience
- MMOs, online multiplayer support (like Xbox Live), and similar trends offer socializing and trading
| This story sucks? This story rocks! |
|
|
Comments
basically a good story takes a while to tell, and books and games are able to take advantage of that.
you can enjoy a better story in a videogame, you can have more fun (a good blockbuster fps vs a blockbuster movie), you can have greater thrills, and you can influence the development of the game. you can compete, you can accomplish stuf... videogames are so much better than movies, and given they only cost twice as much the game industry should be owning the movie industry by now.
also, the movies give jobs to talentless hacks who don't know jack, whereas games require highly skilled teams of people. (and one genius - any game without a genius behind it is sorely lacking)
Reply
Reply
In general? NO.
In some instances, YES. A series like Metal Gear Solid is better than the movies, but it's rare. As of right now? I'll admit that the the movie industry is worse than video games with movies like SNakes on a Plane, Superman Returns, Accepted, Step Up, and Bring it On 3. Let's not forget John Tucker Must Die.
In general? No. Films are better than games. Movies don't need controllers. Casuals don't need to learn complicated button layouts and functions. ANYONE can enjoy a film and relax where many videogames take work. That's what Nintendo is trying to change.
Let's talk about costs. Movies can be costly and be trash. The same can be said for games. You don't need a "genius" to make a great film or great game. Just a good idea and an opportunity. A game like Tetris can't be made today. You know it. I know it. Don't kid yourself. The only closest to it is Lumines but that game was expensive to produce. I can use that money to make a film like the original "Clerks" AND still have money left over! Don't forget about the Indie scene. Those movies are good and cheap. For games, I would have to write different story lines for different pathways while making it fun.
With systems like PS3 and 360, games can never be ready for mass consumption. It's too expensive compared to movie tickets because we need to buy the systems. The games themselves are expensive upwards to $60.
Not many people know how to program and debug an entire videogame. That is too difficult compared to editing and special effects.
2 hours of movie is good compared to hours and hours of endless gameplay. Casuals don't have time for that. There's work, sleep and sex.
There ya have it. Next.
Reply
Reply
Apples to apple and oranges to oranges. Midway is seriously losing respect points this generation... not that they had many, anyways. Here comes the generation of EA derivatives... YAY!
Reply