Video games based on blockbuster movies typically get panned, yet they shamelessly benefit from the buzz of their film inspirations. But the developers of this summer's movie games are more intent than ever on transforming gamers' groans into grins.
"Movie games have a bad history," said Jeff Poffenbarger, senior producer at "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" game developer Raven Software. "There is a stigma to movie games, for a thousand different reasons. They come out and they don't live up to the hype people create. For us, it was all about creating the definitive Wolverine experience, not re-creating the movie."
Traditionally, movie games are daunting to develop because they face opening-day deadlines yet take twice as long to produce as the films they are based on. Veteran game director Joby Otero, chief creative officer at "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" developer Luxoflux Studios, said upgrading the genre's quality has become a primary goal in recent years.
"I think Hollywood is communicating with the games industry on a different level now," Otero said. "There's a recognition that a game's quality can impact the overall franchise. I think part of the reason is that more of the key creative decisionmakers grew up as gamers themselves. There's an understanding of how wrong these things can go."
In hopes of saying "hasta la vista, baby" to a poorly received game, Halcyon, which owns the rights to the "Terminator" franchise, allowed the "Terminator Salvation" game developers to work under the same roof as the film crew when creating the apocalyptic third-person shooter based on the flick directed by McG and starring Christian Bale.
Set two years before the film, the "Terminator Salvation" game serves as a prequel to the film, establishing what John Connor has been up to since "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." An increasing number of movie games, such as "Watchmen: The End Is Nigh," are using characters from their films to tell stories independent of their movie counterparts.
Because the "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" movie mostly deals with the origins of hooded villain Cobra Commander, the developers of the accompanying arcade-style shoot-'em-up decided to let their game serve as a quasi-sequel instead, recruiting elements from the 45-year history of the toy line and cartoon series to enhance the story.
"We pick up where the movie ends," said Electronic Arts senior product manager Jason Enos. "We tell a genuine story that's exclusive to the game but ties in key plot points in the film. That also allows us to leverage the larger G.I. Joe universe -- characters, vehicles, things you're not going to see in the film but you'll get in the game."
