Sounds really lame, both the strategy and the game
As part of its new e-commerce strategy, Sony plans to use games as an incentive to lure audiences to see its films.
The next batch of games you end up playing could be asking you to shell out a few dollars. That's the direction in which Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment appears to be going as they've announced plans to create three games per year which are closely integrated with media and online functions.
According to a report in <i>Variety</i> - each game will bow when its affiliated picture is released in theaters and will be promoted via the picture's marketing campaign -- unusual considering that most movie-related games are released when a picture hits homevideo.
One of the first games to make use of this new campaign is <b>Men in Black II: Crossfire</b>, also scheduled to be featured later this month at E3 and will be released in June. The first level of the game will be free to play, but Sony will charge gamers roughly $15-$20 for access to the rest of the game.
Sony outlines this marketing tactic to be part of its new e-distribution strategy. Titles will be released periodically to the online community. Titles will be made available on a film's official Web site, and in turn, be syndicated across the Web on multiple gaming sites and portals, and included on a picture's DVD and playable on Internet-networked vidgame consoles such as the PlayStation 2. WildTangent plans to distribute the games through its Broadcast Games Network, which currently reaches more than 60 million Netizens.
WildTangent created "Men in Black II: Crossfire" using the company's WebDriver technology, which enables the development of an online game that looks and plays similar to a game available on a vidgame console. The technology also enables multiple people to play simultaneously. The Redmond, Wash.-based company also created the "Knight's Tale" game.
The concept is to use respective titles as a vehicle to promote a movie's theatrical release and other video venues - home video, pay per view, as well as video on demand.
"This strategy is our next step in both the commercial delivery of games over the Internet, what we're now calling e-distribution, as well as the next level in online film marketing," said Tim Chambers, senior VP of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment's Advanced Platforms group. "Through these games, we are looking to deepen the engagement and experience for our users while extending the studio's brands both on and offline."
Sounds really lame, both the strategy and the game
I Live
It sounds like more movies will end up having games based on them. The real problem here is that it means that making the game will be closely tied to the movie production timetable. The suits will (presumably) want the games ready to go well BEFORE the movie hits so as to fuel the hype. That means that the developers will have an even stricter and tighter schedule. Movie games tend to be crap anyway- this just makes things worse. *sigh*
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