Movies on Consoles

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5 total messages Started by Dean Siren Thu, 28 Mar 2002 16:24

#66073

Author: Dean Siren
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 16:24

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I'm beginning to think that the video game industry is a movie maker's paradise.
It lets people make a 40 hour movie, and as long as they call it a video game,
they can sell millions of copies of it worldwide for $50, PLUS get it into every
Blockbuster Video, Wal Mart and Best Buy!  Despite making their movies for
proprietary hardware not a fifth as popular as ordinary DVD players, charging
twice the cost of normal movies, mislabeling them as games and giving up $7 per
copy, they still profit enormously.  Video game fans have THAT MUCH demand for
movies delivered in game format.  I wouldn't be surprised if Spielberg or
somebody else big decides to make a day-long movie and call it a video game.

Imagine if Lord of the Rings was made this way!  It might not look as nice as
the current movie, but, if it can attract the fans of Metal Gear, Final Fantasy
and Xenosaga, it could have the entire story of the book and the customers would
happily watch all of it!

Imagine if the Final Fantasy movie was made this way.  If it was simply
published as a PS2 DVD-ROM for $50, it might have made much more money because
it would have been where the fans were.  It would have sold at least 3 million
copies worldwide plus rented tons.

Movie fans often complain that movies could be amazingly deep and broad if only
they didn't have to be short enough for theaters.  If they were made straight
for console, maybe they could be!  Movies don't need gorgeous actors or
photorealistic rendering, just decent imagery, fitting sounds and music, just
hours and hours of well written and well acted dialogue, either photographed or
animated.

And if they're going to make a game straight for console, they might as well
make it straight for DVD, since more people own DVD players, PS2 and XBox play
DVDs, and they wouldn't have to give up $7 per copy.  They'd just have to make
sure that the movie is aimed straight at video game fans.  They'd have to
advertize it in VG magazines, and convince Blockbuster and Wal Mart to put it in
the VG section as they do with the FF and Metal Gear games.

We often blame game developers for being more interested in making movies than
games, but I think they should admit that interest and, rather than dumb their
stories down to a theater-compatible 2 hour movie like Square did, make long,
involving, straight-to-home movies.  I think that has a lot of possibilities.
It would move away from the hope of mixing video games and movies, but it would
improve what game developers have actually been making: movies that give their
stories all the time they need.

Re: Movies on Consoles

#66074

Author: Steve Pritchard
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 16:27

17 lines
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"Dean Siren" <d...@iu.net> wrote in message
news:ua6guiqplspc33@corp.supernews.com...
> I'm beginning to think that the video game industry is a movie maker's
paradise.
> It lets people make a 40 hour movie, and as long as they call it a video
game,
> they can sell millions of copies of it worldwide for $50, PLUS get it into
every
> Blockbuster Video, Wal Mart and Best Buy!  Despite making their movies for
> proprietary hardware not a fifth as popular as ordinary DVD players,
charging
> twice the cost of normal movies, mislabeling them as games and giving up
$7 per
> copy, they still profit enormously.

For ever big earner there are twenty games that don't break even. Movies
have a higher hit rate.

Re: Movies on Consoles

#66075

Author: M. Dash
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 19:04

34 lines
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"Steve Pritchard" <S_Pri...@shef.rage.co.uk> wrote in message
news:a7vg9u$o0s6f$1@ID-56527.news.dfncis.de...
> "Dean Siren" <d...@iu.net> wrote in message
> news:ua6guiqplspc33@corp.supernews.com...
> > I'm beginning to think that the video game industry is a movie maker's
> paradise.
> > It lets people make a 40 hour movie, and as long as they call it a video
> game,
> > they can sell millions of copies of it worldwide for $50, PLUS get it
into
> every
> > Blockbuster Video, Wal Mart and Best Buy!  Despite making their movies
for
> > proprietary hardware not a fifth as popular as ordinary DVD players,
> charging
> > twice the cost of normal movies, mislabeling them as games and giving up
> $7 per
> > copy, they still profit enormously.
>
> For ever big earner there are twenty games that don't break even. Movies
> have a higher hit rate.

You couldn't be further from the truth. The movie industry produces a *MUCH*
higher of money losers than the game industry. Keep in account the average
budget for big studio films is $30 million, and the scores of independent
films that are made at a loss, never released, or limited in distribution.
Then there's video only films that depend on high rentals to sell copies.
And even out of the huge block buster movies, many of those lose money as
they're budgets far exceed their gross potential. Video games have the
luxury of not having to compensate a famous actor with as much as 40% of the
budget, insurance, trailers, location levies, taxes etc. The "success ratio"
for video games is FAR higher, albeit, video game revenues tend to be less
than big movie releases.

Re: Movies on Consoles

#66076

Author: Philip Adams
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 19:39

10 lines
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G-rated films' average gross profit was 66%. PG-rated films returned an
average gross of 52% over costs; PG-13 films, 50%; R-rated films, 37%; and
NC-17 films (formerly called X-rated), 27%.

Somehow I doubt VG's have that average precentage of return.  Though I could
find no information specific to the industry as a whole.

Intrestingly enough though:  Goldeneye the movie, featuring Pierce '007'
Brosnan and Alan 'from TV's famous The High Life' Cumming, grossed a total
of $106m. Goldeneye the (fourth best) game (ever) grossed a total of $230m.

Re: Movies on Consoles

#66077

Author: Rockstar
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 01:40

2 lines
965 bytes

AMEN TO THAT BROTHER, it needs to STOP!

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