Goovies: Why games'n'movies don't mix

Movies into games

We've taken a look at games into movies and now its time to look at the process reversed. Merchandising has been a part of commercial success ever since George Lucas proved the point with Star Wars. Following Lucas' success, soon the market was flooded with trading cards and toy figures of your favourite film character. When games came along it was a logical step to churn out more garbage, tag the franchise name on it and just assume the plebs would buy it. The plebs didn't just buy it, they loved it, and before you could shout "Action!" Ocean Software was churning out Amiga flavoured turds passed off as games.

With the 90's and the increase in home computing popularity with the SNES and Mega Drive, other companies got in on the act. Mickey Mouse had a rather memorable stint on the Mega Drive and there was a consistent stream of good Star Wars for both PC and console. In general, though, Hollywood didn't really cotton onto how lucrative the gaming market was until the turn of the 21st Century.



It was really Goldeneye that catapulted movie adaptations into the limelight. So brilliant was this game, in the reception it received and the money it made, that it really took hold of Hollywood by the balls and gave them a good squeeze. The rip-roaring success of the game proved that the gaming market was another cash cow Hollywood could milk, potentially more valuable than all the other merchandising ventures stuck together.

Then we get to where we are now, where every blockbusting film release has a game spinoff. What do people who've just watched the new Superman movie want to do? Go and play the game of course. What if you're a kid who has fallen in love with the new Pixar movie, Cars? "Get me the game mum, Get me it now!" Movie spin off games like the Harry Potter games have even been (in some cases) pretty fun. It’s a genre of game that is getting bigger with every year, growing in popularity and financial clout.

We've even got to the stage where big movie releases will see smaller games developers releasing unofficial tie-in games. Take The Da Vinci Code, which was released in the summer of 2006. Not only did it get its own game, imaginatively called 'The Da Vinci Code', it also got a game published by Nobilis called 'The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript'. Had this rather uninspiring titled game been released at any other time of the year would it have been a success? Not at all, but the game was able to ride on the tail of the movie hype and actually perform solidly .



In 1999 'Alien versus Predator', a first person shooter for the PC, was released. The game, which wasn't directly based on a movie but rather a fusion of two successful action/horror movies, was a massive success in terms of sales and critical acclaim. Alien versus Predator gave you the chance to play as either of the two races (or the marine) each with its own special ability, making for some immense deathmatch action. It was a truly wonderful game, parented by two awesome movies. Then, something unusual happened.



The game was so successful that the Hollywood guys smelt goovie. Alien versus Predator, which had been made from two movies cut'n'shut together, was swiftly transformed into a movie. Hopes were high that finally the world would have a goovie to be proud of, which would prove that games really could handle their movie status. It would be so simple - Alien comes in, fights the Predator with lots of humans stuck in the middle. How could they fail?

Well, they did, and the movie was awful, below even the very low standard that had previously been set.