Gamers long for the glory days of video game movie tie-ins.
Gamers long for the days when every major film had an adaptation based on video game franchises; some wish this trend were back again.
At some point in time, most of us will likely have played a movie tie-in game that either recapitulates, expands on, or provides its own narrative in that film’s universe.
My favorites as a child gamer included The Incredibles, Spider-Man 2, King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie and GoldenEye 007. While these titles varied considerably in quality and replayability depending on when they came out and often served only to take advantage of hype surrounding new movies, some were truly remarkable and still deserve playing today.
Reddit user kneehighonagrasshopr has noticed the decline of such games for PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and original Xbox. They used to be cheaply available as they catered mostly towards younger audiences – often filling bargain bins quickly! Over time however they seem to have become less common as Reddit user kneehighonagrasshopr wonders why.
They wrote an open letter questioning why video game based on every movie have all but vanished since I grew up during the early to mid 2000s; almost every film released had at least one game created for it… I don’t mean all were necessarily good but it seems odd that suddenly all these titles just stopped.”
Fans discussed their disappearance in the comments, with many attributing it to video game industry’s shift into direct competition with films as well as an increasing proliferation of standalone IPs that don’t need to tie back into existing franchises.
One user noted, “They didn’t sell well and their lead times have outshone movie marketing timelines”, according to another knowledgeable individual. Additionally, “They died out because games no longer come at such low production costs, with expectations becoming far greater; designed as cheap cash grabs in the past; nowadays you could just publish mobile game or event for existing game whilst reaping greater revenues,” as another suggested.
Unfortunately, it appears we will no longer see tie-in film games again, due to what some commenters noted: they simply will not sell as well compared to current AAA releases.
