Films based on video games, and vice versa, are set to take over pop culture
Once associated with low-budget and even lower quality, movies based on video games, much like the superhero movies phenomenon, are destined to become too big to fail
As Hollywood truisms go, “video games make bad movies” is up there with screenwriter William Goldman’s infamous “Nobody knows anything.”
Nonetheless, like that addicted gamer who can’t switch his console off at 4am, Hollywood keeps coming back for one more go. It’s understandable: like comic-books, the current king when it comes to studio source material, games come with a built-in (and very loyal) fanbase and that all-important brand recognition. The revenue streams are also huge, as anyone watching Take Two’s Grand Theft Auto V become the fastest ever entertainment property to reach US$1 billion will have seen.
Studios have begun to wake up to the fact that movies are no longer the main source of entertainment for the 18-24 demographic who are just as likely to spend their precious dollars on a game as a movie ticket.
“People now see this [gaming] as the creative medium of this time period,” says Harvey Smith, the American designer behind Arkane Studios’ Dishonored and this year’s sequel Dishonored 2. “The same way the novel had a birth, and it first wasn’t taken seriously.”
