As if there were not enough movie-licensed games released every week already, The Weinstein Company has just established a new division called TWC Games. Better watch your back, Warner Bros. Interactive. The catalog of established franchises is wildly vast and varied, including such titles as Scream, Halloween, Clerks and two recent Academy Award recipients, The Fighter and The King’s Speech.
The move by the Weinsteins into the gaming industry is no surprise. In fact, it is more surprising that the Weinstein brothers have taken this long to capitalize on their lucrative intellectual properties. If Lionsgate can manage to get a Saw game out the doors, Scream and Halloween would undoubtedly translate into the video games industry as well. The question remains, does TWC Games have the drive to make quality titles as opposed to the usual schlock that permeates the market?
The stigma associated with movie tie-in games has definitely reached a peak in the current age of gaming, and many gamers do not even have the time or patience to consider a licensed game unless there is an abundance of proof the game is worth playing. Very few tie-in games stand out – Spider-Man 2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine – in a genre full of overpriced low quality cash grabs .
Don’t worry, there is hope. In the press release, Bob Weinstein, co-chairman at TWC, had the following to say about this new endeavor:
“The video game marketplace is changing at such a rapid rate. With all of the digital platforms, there are so many opportunities to broaden our audience with compelling, high quality, cost-efficient, video game entertainment.”
Driving home the point that the Weinsteins care about quality, they have enlisted the help of Beefy Media, a company which “specializes in helping developers create identities for their studios and better sell themselves to Publishers.” Some of the games Beefy Media has helped bring to market include Dark Void, Bionic Commando, and Flock! It remains to be seen just how much care is being put into the games coming out of TWC Games, but with the help of Beefy Media, there’s a chance we could see some quality video games.
Does the news that you will be seeing even more movie tie-in games disappoint you, or do you Ranters have faith in TWC Games? Feel free to discuss below, and tell us which TWC property you would like to see turned into a game.
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Basic rule in video game production (even if I am just making it up now), “compelling, high quality, cost-efficient, choose two”.
I may end up eating my words here, but I really don’t see the Weinsteins giving enough control to the creative teams on the games to produce decent titles. Likely, they’re going to end up making dumbed down games that “everyone” likes. Basically, a bunch of action games, probably first person shooters or platformers that have all the hallmarks of being carbon copies of some of the most popular stuff we saw ten years ago.
On the other hand, we may have another Lucas Arts on our hands (early days Lucas Arts, not what they’ve become now), a game company that’s actually dedicated to making decent, groundbreaking stuff that doesnt necessarily just do movie tie-ins, but also original games as well. But frankly, the Weinsteins becames cash cows long ago, so I don’t see that as being likely.
I see a coming legal battle over the name “TWC Games” as Time Warner Cable has a games division that is working on delivering games through the cable box and has TWC trademarked.