Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official game of the movie

"Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official game of the movie" is a hybrid game, considered first-person shooter and adventure genre video-game based on the "King Kong" film remake by Peter Jackson. It was made for several platforms, such as Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo DS, Gameboy Advance and PC[1]. The game was released on November 17th, 2005, just 3 weeks before the film's release, as a spin-off of the same. The "King Kong" game is considered a very successful product, and presents a very rare partnership between the film director and producer, Peter Jackson, and the famous game designer Michel Ancel. It reached the 9th position at UK Top Ten 2005[2], as well as the 8th best-selling position on December 2008 by NPD group[3]. The game sold 1.7 million units in the Playstation 2 platform, while its competitor "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" sold 3.14 million[4] and "Call of Duty II", 2.31 million[5]. Nevertheless, the portable versions were not appreciated by consumers, like in Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS because of technical issues and poor level design. This fact can remind producers to better plan each platform release, because just one platform failure can spread its “bad image” to the entire franchise.

The film story was very well adapted to the game. It has a different focus, one that is not depicted in the movie. Indeed, since the motion picture was released after the game, this strategy had been very smart, because the game had not told spoilers that could have harmed the pleasure of movie-goers.

The sound is very well done, as orchestral music helps to create climax and player immersion in the game. Actor’s voices are another good point, which are very realistic and well-performed as well as animal’s sounds. For example, hoar and scream from King Kong and dinosaurs that look very realistic.

Some players rely on the sounds to avoid dangers from the jungle, this shows how a good game can create a reality and sensorial experience to the player through sound.

Graphics are very good. There is a sense of realism while in the island and looking at characters. The computer-controlled characters are very intelligent, some dinosaurs can be distracted by smaller animals or corpses, as they are respecting a food-chain.

In addition to that, King Kong’s game innovated in regards to screen image. Instead of putting health and ammo numbers on the screen there is none, the character tells how much ammo he has.

Another interesting aspect is the type of gameplay. After playing as a human, the gamer will be playing as King Kong, and the storytelling is so interlaced that gamers feel like they are playing the movie itself.

The game add extra content out of movie, also brings an immersive experience

"King Kong" is one of the few examples of good film spin-offs. Most critic complaints are in reference to the length of gameplay, which is 6 hours[7].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jackson%27s_King_Kong:_The_Official_Game_of_the_Movie

[2] http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=18010

[3] http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/chart/160/?biz=1&articleTypeId=-1

[4] http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=5764&region=All

[5] http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=4932&region=All

[6] http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/review/920342.html

[7] http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/kingkong/review.html

Iron Man

"Ironman" was an action genre video-game based on the "Ironman" film, and made for several platforms, such as Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC. The game was released on May 2nd, 2008 to be the flm's spin-off[1] , and was part of the film release's marketing campaign, the same strategy used for "Transformers" (including product placements, echo brands, merchandises), as it was released on the same day of the motion picture’s exhibition. The Hollywood film "Iron Man" was very successful, earning 318 million dollars in domestic revenue and 588 million dollars in worldwide revenue[2]. However, the game was not an example of good sales, as no platform reached more than 600.000 units[3], a disappointment for a big marketing effort around the film franchise.

"Iron Man" is an experimental game, unlike other major film-games. It tries to deliver a different experience instead of entirely reproducing past styles. Although 2008 was a memorable and competitive year for the game industry, many good titles disputed the market and "Iron Man" had a lot of competitors. Two games of the same genre can be considered major competitors for "Iron Man", "James Bond: Quantum of Solace", that sold a little more than the former game (630.000 units in Playstation 3 and 870.000 units in XBOX 360[4]) and "Devil May Cry 4", that sold an average of 1.5 million units for each platform[5].

One of the first Game Faqs reviews can be caught by one's eye by exposing a failure behind a great idea: “Make an Iron Man game based off the box office hit movie. A GREAT IDEA!!! Unfortunately the game isn't that good.”[6] The overall mark for this game is 5 out of 10.

However, the story content is one of its best features, film’s story adaptation with additional comic book content. Graphic quality oscillates, when Iron Man is flying most of the landscape looks great, as well as the details of his armor. However, when Iron Man is on the ground, graphics look terrible. Notable points are controls and sound, they don’t look great but are considered average. On the other hand, gameplay is the worst part of the game, it is very repetitive making the gamer tired instead of excited, there so many enemies firing at Iron Man that the player cannot even think what they need to do or go to, making it a very frustrating experience.

Repetitive gameplay makes an frustating experience instead of entertainment

Gameplay is definitely the worse part, as the enemies are so numerous and overwhelming, combined with no checkpoints (a way to load a saved game if the player dies), adding to the overall frustrating game experience.


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man_(video_game)

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man_(film)

[3] http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=iron+man

[4]http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=solace&console=&region=All&developer=&publisher=&genre=&keyword=&boxart=Both&results=50&order=Sales

[5]http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=devil+may+cry&console=&region=All&developer=&publisher=&genre=Action&keyword=&boxart=Both&results=50&order=Sales

[6] http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/review/936559.html

Terminator 3: War of the machines

"Terminator 3: War of the machines" was a first-person shooter genre video-game based on the "Terminator" franchise, made for the PC-Windows platform[1]. The game was released on November 28th, 2003 to be the spin-off of the film "Terminator 3: Rise of the machines", released on July 2nd, 2003. The game was intended to be an extension of the movie and not its promotion, as it was released several months after the exhibition of the motion picture on movie theatres. Hollywood’s "Terminator" franchise turned out to be a great success, just like "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" (unlike its predecessors), earning 150 million dollars in domestic revenue, and 433 million dollars around the globe[2]. The game was a commercial flop, though (no public sales data is available). It reached position #17,416 in Amazon.com games sales rank[3], with an initial cost of 50 dollars and final purchase price of only 14 dollars, also being the last game developed by Clever’s Games[4].

This "Terminator" game follows a specific wave of first-person shooter “war games”. Its style closely resembles that of the well known and successful franchise "Battlefield 1942" (released in 2002), focused on team versus team online gameplay. For that reason, "Battlefield" is "Terminator's" main competitor, with a very positive sales result during the years of 2003 and 2004, when 3 million copies were sold [5] and the 10th position within NPD ranking was reached.

The other competitor was "Call of Duty", reaching the 8th position in the NPD report ranking[6], but this game is manly for single-person offline experience.

Graphics were disappointing, showing the producer’s lack of effort. This could be observed when some characters did not respond to shooting, they seemed to lack any animation response. Negative sound quality, that does not resemble the film, bad voice acting and boring repeating music. In addition, lack of single-player story, there is no story or screenplay, just random maps with “dumb” computer opponents. In regards to the gameplay aspect, "Terminator" is a bad "Battlefield" clone, with “generic weapons”, bugged maps and vehicles. The game was a “zero teamwork game”, which is pretty disappointing for a subgenre that focuses on multiplayer and team gameplay[7].

This game was just another copycat taking advantage of the film brand to sell itself

Gamespy reviewer says: “copycat game follows parts of the recipe, it misses a few major ingredients and undercooks the rest. The results taste terrible.”[8] Both Gamespy and Gamespot critics agree in saying that this "Terminator" game is a bad unfinished copy, giving a lower score of 2 out of 10 (Gamespot)[9].

The game lacks the support from Atari or Clever games to online gameplaying. Most servers were set up by players, there were no “public servers”. In addition, this game had engine software problems, constantly choking and staging.

In can be concluded that "Terminator: War of the Machines" is the perfect example of the common mistakes that can be present in a spin-off, usually lack of time to produce a revised product and lack of creativity, revealling the fact that the brand would have sold by itself.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_3:_War_of_the_Machines

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_3:_Rise_of_the_Machines

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Terminator-3-War-Machines-Pc/dp/B00009WDS9

[4] http://www.mobygames.com/company/clevers-games-ltd

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_1942

[6] http://www.xboxaddict.com/news/4311/2003-NPD-Group-Annual-Report-2003-U.S..html

[7] http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/review/915258.html

[8] http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/terminator-3-war-of-the-machines/6504p1.html

[9] http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/terminator3wotm

GoldenEye 007

"GoldenEye 007" was a first person shooter genre video-game based on the James Bond movie "GoldenEye" for the Nintendo 64 platform. The game was released in 1997 while the movie was released in 1995, so there is no visible relation between the film’s launching promotion and the game itself. [1] "GoldenEye 007" was very successful in the opinion of both critics and consumers. It sold 8 million copies and is one of the best selling games of the Nintendo 64 platform. "GoldenEye’s" biggest competitors in 1997 were "Quake II" for computer platform (same genre), which sold 1 million copies, and "Mario Kart 64" for Nintendo 64 platform, which sold 8.4 million copies[2]. It also received great reviews and awards from critics, between 90 and 100 percent score as it is shown on the table below:

The story is the same as the one told in the movie and the players have no objections to that, since most of them like what they saw on the big screen. Although the story is the same, the game definitely does not follow it strictly, as many parts of the story were extended and even some places that Bond had not been to were part of real missions in the game.

The sound is well-recorded, with classic Bond songs as well as interesting sound effects. However voice acting, was pretty limited.

Much of the "GoldenEye" success came because of the innovation in gameplay, that it differs from "Quake" and "Doom" in the sense that the game is not focused only on chasing enemies, there are several other exciting objetives in the game, such as finding a key or launching a rocket.

In fact, this idea was one of the pillars to the making of "GoldenEye 007", innovation in the gameplay instead of simly delivering a copycat, as the main designer Martin Hollis says: “the gameplay model was Virtua Cop with a bit of Doom, plus some Mario 64 […] We ended up with innovative gameplay, in part because we had Virtua Cop features in a FPS: A gun that only holds 7 bullets and a reload button, lots of position dependant hit animations, innocents you shouldn’t kill, and an aiming mode […] From Mario 64, I took the idea of 5 missions per level. Yes, we changed it from the Mario format, which was attempt-one-mission-per-play, but the idea for the huge variety of missions within a level came from Mario 64”[1].

Innovation with puzzles, missions and gameplay were keys for sucess

It is important to observe the multiplayer development present in the game. "GoldenEye" has the best Nintendo 64 multiplayer platform. Differently from "Quake", "GoldenEye" uses a split-screen multiplayer and at that time video-game consoles did not have any internet or long distance capability. This game could entertain groups of close people, like a family or neighbors in a very innovative way.

Other James Bond games were produced, but none hit the spot like "GoldenEye" did. "The World is Not Enough" (1999), which was developed into different game consoles and by other producing studios, received an overall mark of 70% by consumers[4]. Major complaints evolve around the premature and forced release of the game due to schedule problems[5], which brought an unfinished game to the market. Multiplayer capability, just to mention one example, was almost nonexistent.

"GoldenEye", on the other hand, missed its original release deadline in order to ensure the final product quality, a decision that proved to be right. In conclusion, developers or film studios should pay attention to rushing and forcing unfinished game releases, which can result in major commercial failures. One example of this mistake was "E.T. The extraterrestrial" game, released by following a very short schedule to fit the film theatrical release.

[1] http://www.rareware.com/company/press-microsoft1.html

[2] http://www.listal.com/list/bestselling-pc-games

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldenEye_007

[4] http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/review/197462.html

[5] http://www.zoonami.com/briefing/2004-09-02.php

[6] http://www.gamespot.com/n64/action/goldeneye007/review.html

[7] http://ign64.ign.com/articles/151/151991p1.html

[8] http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/review/914163.html

[9] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268761/trivia

Introduction

This blog is an electronic version of a marketing case study analysed while I was studying at the New York University. It conveys thoughts about video-game products that used movies as a base for themselves and the reasons behind their failures or sucesses.

The making of video-games from feature-film movies is a very old technique, and dates from the beginning of video-game industry. In fact, one of the first releases was "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", released in 1982 for the Atari 2600 game console, also known as one of the biggest commercial flops in the video-game industry, having 2.5 million cartridges buried in a waste.

However, movie spin-offs never lost importance in this competitive market, considered strategic by major film studios. Growing in a rate of 6 percent every year and already making a startling 9.5 billion dollar figure, reports made by PricewaterhouseCoopers[1] and NPD Group[2] estimate it is projected to reach 48.8 billion dollars by 2011.

E.T. the Game: 2.5 million cartridges buried in a waste

Most film studios like Disney, Viacom and Warner Brothers are making deals with existing game producers, buying small game studios or creating their own corporate game division.

Breaking into this market is not only financially interesting, it is a necessity, with a dark scenario showing DVD sales having dropped[3] 6.3 percent and box office ticket sales by 1 percent, with 5 percent attendance decrease, according to New York Times. Investment risk is a common factor present to both industries, and the transportation of a movie to another platform such as video-game is a way to take advantage of a previous successful brand exposition, to which the audience is already accustomed to. The only concern for the company, therefore, is to ensure the correct adaptation and good entertainment experience. If the film or game company manages to pull it off, it will reduce risk on capital investment and probably increase the return on investment for the whole company’s portfolio.

One of the greatest advantages of video-game releases is the lower exposition to piracy, since usually games have larger files to download in p2p networks than films do.

In addition, and most importantly, video-games that offer online content and playing require server authentication with a customer’s serial code. Even though most of the film-based video-games have a bad reputation, some good productions like "GoldenEye 007", that sold 8 million copies – according to its producer Rareware [4] – and was considered by critics important for first person shooter genre development, prove that the sky is the limit when it comes to gross sales if you have the right strategy and content on your hands.

Major film studios and game studios are aware of this new trend. Many film studios created their own video-game division, for example: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Disney Interactive Studios, Paramount Digital Entertainment, and others.

Some games publishers are also alligned with this trend, and an excellent example is the French game publisher Ubisoft, that acquired Hybride, the studio behind movies such as "300" and "Sin City". Ubisoft's North America president Laurent Detoc said, when he was asked by Gamasutra about film importance, that "It's important because we want our brands to live longer and elsewhere than just games".

Detoc demonstrated one of the most important marketing toughts, often forgotten by companies of every industry segment, and always commented on by the marketing academic guru Philip Kotler: the importance of the company is not what product it sells, but what it brings to costumers as a service or satisfaction.

He knows that Ubisoft is not just a video-game company, it is, in fact, an entertainment company that wants to bring entertainment experiences to customers. It's a much wider idea. It's like thinking of Royal Dutch Shell as an energy company instead of just an oil company. That means if they keep thinking that they sell energy, they might be selling wind and solar power 40 years from now, when (and if) petroleum is wiped out of the planet.


[1] http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2007/id20070813_120384.htm

[2] http://www.theesa.com/facts/salesandgenre.asp

[3] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121056770437.htm

[4] http://www.rareware.com/company/press-microsoft1.html