Another indusrty taking a shot at gaming

[Slycne]

http://news.filefront.com/film-execs-blame-halo-3-for-poor-movie-ticket-sales/

Oh no now they are stealing our ticket sales, and ironically the Halo movie has been canceled.

edit
The original article as well
http://adage.com/latestnews/article.php?article_id=121130

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I'll go with the folks who say this was less "video games mining the demographic out from under movies" and more "Halo 3 (or Daikatana for that matter) is more fun than yet another Ben Stiller flick".

-- Steve

 

[danimal1384]

that's totally absurd. if movie sales are crappy for october, its probably cause the movies out in october are equally crappy. this month, aside from maybe wanting to see the Resident Evil movie (OMG, a VIDEO GAME!), the only movies i might wanna see are Eastern Promises or Transformers again on IMAX, but TF came out on DVD TODAY!! if hollywood is upset that their movies are getting alot of money, than maybe its a sign that they suck. there are no original ideas left in LA. most movies now are either a comic book movie, a video game movie, a remake, something from the 80's, or a sequel. its frustrating, cause anything i can see on the silver screen, i can either read in a comic, or i already saw it when i was 7.

 

[hooliganyouth]

Lately while watching a movie of the sci-fi/action/horror I have the bad - and probably annoying - habit of turning to whomever I'm watching the movie with and saying "Hey, that level was pretty good." after a halfway decent scene.

I don't go to the movies a lot any more for several reasons:

1) I hate audiences and crowds of jocular halfwits who treat movie theaters like their living rooms. I'm a matinee kind of guy.

2) Why should I spend $10-$40 (depending on if I'm going with my girl and if we buy popcorn and soda) on a potentially disappointing/idiotic/pointless two hours of drek.

3) I can wait a few months and rent it on DVD from netflix.

4) By the time a movie I am interested in seeing in the theater (i.e. "30 Days of Night") I have been beaten over the head with trailers, commercials, banners, pop-ups, blog posts, teasers, spoiler reviews, no spoiler reviews, interviews, on set mini documentaries, and word of mouth for months and months. Sometimes over year depending on what sites I visit.

5) Ben Stiller movies are generally bad. The fact that people spend enough money to convince studios to keep producing them makes me happy that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.


When it comes down to it I think it's good that Hollywood and advertising is eyeballing gaming - more money=more games. More big budget games means more low budget games will have the chance to develop. Imagine if there was a revolution in gaming like there was in Indie cinema in the early 90s - I can't wait.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

All the breaches of the media mafia always blame other things for failing sells its never the movies suck,the games suck,the songs suck,the prices are too high its ZOMG we can't get the consumer to pay for every lil thing lets make half of what they do illicit so they will have to pay us more!

you know what I no longer pay 10+ for a 5$ movie thats sold for 20$ and no longer pay 20+ for a game thats sold for 50$, lets not even start on the music,its funny the radio edits are even more prevalent now adays meaning you have to buy it to get it uncensored, yes I know I wear my tin foil hat well.....

 

[marklodi]

Shying away from the "games vs movies" argument, I do believe there could be validity to the idea that money spent on movies that weekend was less because of Halo 3. I would guess that there could be other such correlations, like less money spent on books or cds or dvds as well, though I haven't checked on that.

My guess is that most people have a limit on the amount of discretionary spending they can do in a given week, and for that week, the money went towards Halo 3. I know I for one purchased the Limited Edition (don't get me started on the scratching), which set me back $70. That's 70 bucks less I had for movies or going out to eat, etc. Bless an understanding wife and kids, we cooked at home and they watched TV....Dad was busy in the den with his 360.

 

[Russ Pitts]

There's also a budding recession on. It might just be possible fewer people are going to the movies because they're busy moving out of their foreclosed homes.

But on the off chance the decline in ticket sales is due to Halo 3, I think that's an incredibly good sign for the industry.

 

[ccesarano]

The effect of Halo 3 can only be minor. I mean, let's be honest, if you look at the monetary figures, yeah Halo 3 made a lot in 24 hours. Now let's compare number of copies sold compared to number of tickets. Let's also take the number of people who played Halo 3, and now take all the people in America 17 and up (though we should include 13 and up as well and just be realistic about it) that do not have an Xbox 360, no interest in video games, and those that have an Xbox 360 but no interest in Halo 3.

I'm sure you'll find a much larger number than you will the number of people that bought Halo 3.

Now let's consider the fact that Halo 3 is going to be targeted towards very, very different tastes than Heartbreak Kid in the first place...

In the end, it's a scapegoat. Halo 3 may be big, but there's no way it can compete with movie sales when it comes to pure units. It can only compare in dollars because, let's face it $5-$10 for a movie (depending on time of day and location) is nothing compared to $60, $70 or, God forbid, $130 for a game.

 

[gameloftguy]

With a marketing/economic report, much like scientific experiments, you can pretty much "prove" whatever you want as long as you angle everything to your liking.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

marklodi
I wont shy away from it,however my view is gaming is becoming hollywood,like at the size and price of projects and the seemingly same amount of "effort" its kinda scary to see the same quality level in a cheap 15$ movie and a 50$ 8 hour game,sure I think gaming has a better ratio of non suck to suck than hollywood dose but the movement to lower detail(level design,design,ect) in order to get a project out a year easily at the same time cutting 25% or more of game time... I just do not like where things are headed, they have polished the corporate machine to the point they can release a buggy crap fest and make some profit off it god forbid they give the project a extra 15 months for polish work.....Bioshock has shown me the system is broken publishers don't really care if a game is ready or not they just launch it regardless.


Russ Pitts
we've had 4$ milk and meats for the past 2ish years maybe more same for above 2$ gas, we've been in a budding recession longer than most care to note,corporations have been tightening the screws and getting more and more while the consumer has been earning about the same as they did years ago,however the balance in money flow is totally fcked up, a family of 4 with 3 cards and 2 teens that driver the FORCED insurance people have to spend a year can be up to and over 1200 a year just for the "right" to drive, add up the imbalance in taxes,forced regulation,higher rates...its a wonder we aint broke yet.

I loath the car nazi consortium the most a car at 2-5X what the real price should be add on short life span, add on forced insurance that can be as cheap as 100 a person a year or as costly as 300 a person, its a wonder they just don't switch to 200 a month for life and have the insurance paid for and you get a new car every 2 or 5 years.

zippy 110% rant mode

WTF happened to innovation in pricing from movies to music to games and cars its like the sheeple are so happy grazing they cant see they are being lead to the slaughter house, we really need to go back to cheaper modular effcaint designs, or at the last pricing that dose not rape the populace while the elites lobby for better ways to fleece them.

sorry sorry ><

 

[LordLocke]

In a growing recession, every industry that's failing is going to point fingers at the ones that somehow still thrive.

Movies are in decline. Despite this year having the biggest opening weekend ever, it seems moviegoers kinda blew their load all at once, because otherwise things have been down pretty much across the board.

The easiest finger to point is at video games, a market currently in growth (as it is every system cycle) and has quickly gained a lot of popularity over the last two generations with declining prices (Remember, before the PS3 there was the PS2 ), increased accessibility, and a maturation of things like storytelling ability and world design. It could very much be stealing a portion of movies audiences- I know that, despite currently working in the movie industry (and getting my movie tickets for free), I see a hell of a lot less movies then I did five years ago when I still had to pay for them- largely due to the fact that I'd rather spend $20 on a Greatest Hits title I've been waiting for to hit the discount bins and gets ten to twenty hours of assured entertainment then waste two hours of my time on what's likely to be schlock, even if I get it for free.

Of course, part of the blame goes to movie studios, who currently are focused more on sequels, formulaic genre standards, and remakes then original, thought-provoking content, and movies that do actually do something original, new, and interesting tend to be 'rewarded' with poor box office sales and placement in smaller houses when they come out alongside such wince-worthy movies like The Heartbreak Kid (remake), Resident Evil Apocalypse (sequel) and The Game Plan (prepackaged Disney formula film). Even big name stars can't seem to help the little guys anymore, as apparently instead if going to see Michael Clayton, the big dog in the box office was Tyler Perry's "Yet Another African-American-centric Moral Story About Family." Which, considering how long Tyler Perry's been waiting for people to actually give a damn about his movies, goes to show that even movies that nobody ever went and saw in the past will eventually catch on with the average (IE, stupid) moviegoer if you repackage it enough times.

 

[bue519]

so what their saying is that its not because their script was garbage its because of master chief?

 

[Overnuke [deprecated]]

Video games sold more than music did last year, the industry is on the rise, and the current entertainment champions are shaking in their Gucci virgin crocodile leather boots. I'm glad to see it, with the onslaught of pop/rap music and movie remakes being popular these days it's about time they got a run for their money and had to go back to when movies/music were actually creative.

 

[GrandBoy]

I think the main reason why "Kid" made such little money was because stiller is nothing but a good actor put in to boring/cheesy/annoying films which are in no way breaking the mould.
Halo is a very good game series but I personally would go catch a film with my girlfriend than stay talking to some sweaty 12 year old's who cry when they die (yes this happens)

 

[gameloftguy]

The profits to be gained by the majority of movies are not intended by the movie receipts but through the DvD sales and other fluff that go along with the release of a movie. They want to make as much a hit as possible during their opening week and then expect the bulk of revenues to come from the release of the DvD.

 

[ccesarano]

Bioshock has shown me the system is broken publishers don't really care if a game is ready or not they just launch it regardless.

I found Bioshock to be completely bug-less and an absolutely enjoyable experience, and honestly one of the worst examples you could have provided for your rant.

Halo is a very good game series but I personally would go catch a film with my girlfriend than stay talking to some sweaty 12 year old's who cry when they die (yes this happens)

Or you could enjoy going through the campaign on multiplayer co-op with a bunch of skulls activated, making it a newer experience because it's much, MUCH harder.


One thing I've heard a lot is people saying they are glad this is happening: I'm cautious. If too many companies start to see how well the gaming industry is beginning to do compared to other entertainment industries, they may start to bum rush games and cash in on it as best as they can. This could mean the gaming industry becomes even more horrible.

I'm not that excited, though it's nice to see for now.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

ccesarano
Well good for you for me the mouse is broken (shuddery and sentivty is all off no matter where you set it), the game also has driver issues either nivida cant makes good drivers or the EU3 is messed up or they just didn't "finish" the project in time, and don't get me started on the lack of polish and options in the game itself, it is a prefect exsmaple of a 6 being sold as a 9 and being ignored by the publisher to boot, sure they will launch a patch to fix some issues and then move on to the next project without finishing the game.

and even the 360 version has freezing, shuddering, and cache issues.

Co op is nice but MP is not a option I hate it and wont fool thus like yaz said "it dose not count" also the game is "limited" on a game pad and I am not the only one who thinks it time full button mapping should be a default and keybaord and mouse used as a alterntive to a pad.

You might be dazzled by the slightly above average but I am not.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

If you don't believe me check out the 2K forums, I have maanged to get my game to paly but ti requires a restart of the PC, from the rumors I hear abotu nivida they just suck at drivers currently...

As for the game itself...its so watered down its barely passable I would go into detail but I might fry your brain with my grammar

 

[Automatic Meat [deprecated]]

A dead cat is funnier than Ben Stiller.

 

[ccesarano]

and even the 360 version has freezing, shuddering, and cache issues.

Apparently I have the only working version then?

On nVidia, they are just being horrible with drivers. My laptop card isn't really being supported, and I need to see if my distributor offers any more recent drivers than the end of 2006. That's nVidia's bad decision, however.

As for complaining on forums, well, yes, of course you see the forums riddled with complaints. People are much more willing to complain, and complain loudly, than praise (unless you check the comments section of one of Yahtzee's videos).