Whatever Happened to Movie Tie-in Video Game Releases?
The gaming industry has undergone several phases during its tenure, and many gamers across the world look back on them with a certain amount of rosy-flavoured nostalgia. Many people will remember a time in the 2000s when movie tie-in games were all the rage, though they have since declined in recent years. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it is interesting why these types of games suddenly just disappeared. There will be very few people who say that these video games are bad, and in fact, many of these movie tie-in games were exceptionally good – Spider-Man 2 is a great example of this.
In recent years, the video game industry has grown by an incredible amount, likely due to online gaming which is without a doubt the most popular activity in the gaming world. Similar growth can also be seen in other industries, such as gambling and this rise can be attributed to the presence of online gambling sites such as Juicy Vegas casino, though there are many more options for players to access online.
In the past, the film industry and video game industry were romantically intertwined. Many blockbusters out of Hollywood would also drop with a video game adaption to either market the film itself, or to give people more content to experience within that universe. A good example of this is the Harry Potter movie tie-in games, and there has been one game for every movie in the franchise. This used to be the world order, but for some reason during the late 2000s, movie tie-in games simply faded into obscurity.
Interestingly, this was a time when the video game industry had one of the most creative outbursts ever, as original franchises such as Bioshock, Mass Effect and much more were birthed around this time. Given the outrageous success of some of these series, it likely became clear to developers that it was better to spend more time creating new games than making those tie-ins for movie studios.
When the actual process of developing video games is understood, it becomes even clearer why movie tie-in games died out. Many might be familiar with the concept of ‘crunch’. In the gaming industry, this is a period close to the release of the game where developers are expected to work overtime to get the video game finished on time. As developers would have had a set time to work on movie tie-in games, often within a year, this meant that these games would have had to be rushed often, resulting in subpar products. For developers, it was far easier to create their games on their own time which could explain the shift from movie tie-ins to original titles.
Given the nature of movie tie-in games, it should be clear why they no longer appeal to people. The vast majority of them are inherently single-player only, and these arrived during a time when online gaming was beginning to become immensely popular with gamers with titles such as Call of Duty being released around this time. While there are many more reasons why movie tie-ins have faded, it is clear that they are unlikely to ever come back, except the odd few like 2019s Jumanji.
