Stranger 109

Earlier today the folks over at Next-Gen released an analysis of the data they presented yesterday about the top 100 selling games of last year and offered several interesting observations about the future of the industry. One of the less shocking revelations and yet perhaps most depressing was the dominance of licensed titles versus original material. Of course this makes sense. Just like any other form of media, people like what they like and they like it again and again. So repackaging it in a new format is not so much about being unoriginal as it is about being fiscally savvy. I can sadly admit that I was one of the 3.3 M gamers who bought Transformers last summer. And like most, I was positive that it was going to suck. But as long as I got to press the Y button and make Optimus Prime transform with that sound that sits in the top ten sounds of all time for many of the men from my generation (all together now: KOK-CHI-CHA-CHA-CHE) I was willing to drop my $60. And while the game certainly had some fun moments, it was largely disappointing. Of course it is real easy to blame the developer for creating a substandard game, but the problem that most of these games suffer from is the lack of full scale development pipelines that allow for them to make games as amazing as they can. In the case of the Transformers game, developed by TT Games, I want to believe that every person on that development team held those characters and that sound as near and dear as I did, and they wanted to capture that in a gaming experience (and as a side note, TT Games re-envisioning of the Star Wars franchise in Lego form is perhaps one of the most creative and enjoyable licensed properties out there, so licensed properties work sometimes).

The problem with being part of a larger licensed property is the necessity of synergy. Making a great product means very little if the proper marketing window is not hit dead-on to maximize profitability. If you look at some of the most eagerly anticipated games in the past year (GTA IV and Metal Gear Solid 4), both were delayed in attempts to improve upon the game. When dealing with a Hollywood property, that simply is not an option, thus forcing a game out the door before it is ready. And this practice works, as the Next-Gen numbers suggest, because we as the consumers have accepted this as just how it is. We therefore lower our expectations and buy the game anyway, and more often then not, opt not to tell fellow gamers that we have. So as the summer approaches with several massive franchises making both their bow at the box office and at Game Stop (Ironman, The Dark Knight, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, and The Incredible Hulk just to name a few) history is doomed to repeat itself. Only if we band together and refuse to buy our childhood repackaged in a form that plays on our sense of nostalgia can we hope to see a shift in this practice. And as much as I would like to pretend that I have that sort of will power, I know that the summer of 2009 will present me with that same tortured feeling I experienced last summer. I will be exhilarated while placing my pre-order for the G.I. Joe game and will be crestfallen when I actually play it. Because despite having a story that follows the film scene for scene, controls with muddy gameplay or avatars with horrific collision detection, I will pay $60 to be Snake-Eyes. Yo Joe!