Universal Pictures backs off game publishing - Report

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Sep 10, 2009 1:42 pm PT

Following poor Wanted: Weapons of Fate performance, film studio said to halt financing production of game tie-ins, licenses rights away.

Last month, Swedish developer GRIN officially closed its doors, having released a string of commercial failures over the preceding 12-month period. One such title was Wanted: Weapons of Fate, a Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment-published tie-in to Universal Pictures' film of the same name. According to industry-tracking NPD Group, Weapons of Fate has through July sold just 130,000 units in the US since its March 2009 launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The game industry is proving a little too cutthroat for Universal.

More than just contributing to the demise of GRIN, Weapons of Fate now apparently has the distinction of souring Universal Pictures on the game-publishing business. The Los Angeles Times reports that Universal has halted financing the production of game tie-ins for its film properties. Instead, Universal has reportedly licensed the rights to make games based on its films to other publishers.

The LA Times notes that Universal still has ambitions to become a fully fledged game publisher. However, according to the newspaper's source, the studio is now approaching the venture with a heightened sense of caution following Weapons of Fate's poor sales performance.

Universal Pictures had not responded to requests for comment on the LA Times report as of press time.

62 Comments

  • Michformer

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 9:38 am PT

    I have the PS3 version and I love this game. Deserves a bit more attention...when the price tag is lower.

  • chaos20

    Posted Sep 28, 2009 5:11 pm PT

    are you telling me Batman:AA has nothing to do with the new batman films? i dont mean the story, just the fact that batman begins and the dark night did well at the box-office, and a game just happened to be made? i think thats pretty naive

  • biagio55

    Posted Sep 14, 2009 10:51 am PT

    finally. maybe the big movie companies will start payin the gameing industry the respect it deserves. i cant actually think of a good movie to game tie-in (not including batman:AA coz that wasnt a movie related game in the slightest)

  • Rummy500

    Posted Sep 14, 2009 3:20 am PT

    Thank the almighty gaming goddess.

  • Kfoss

    Posted Sep 12, 2009 5:10 pm PT

    well its rather simple- for a good example of a movie-game franchise- please see Batman Arkham Asylum as an example- other wise its probably not even worth the development costs..

  • spioraddorcha

    Posted Sep 12, 2009 6:39 am PT

    One of the biggest reasons movie tie-ins are so often bad is because the studios give the developers a very short time frame in which to make the game. Largely because they consider games just more promotional fodder, but also because they usually don't want to risk leaking too much of the film before release.

  • Desertdback

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 7:23 pm PT

    Totally agree. The big problem is not that there is movie tie-ins but its because these kind of games are more aimed at young children and are very rarely worth 5-10 dollars and definitely not worth 50-60 dollars...

  • ebonyflame

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 7:18 pm PT

    Now if we can get other publishers 'looking at you EA' to stop making game/movie tie ins since they rarely are good, the gaming world would be a better place.

  • x-2tha-z

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 12:56 pm PT

    Someone should tell Universal that they can't rely on the name of the movie to make the tie-in game successful. Those days ended a long time ago. Now you have to actually make the game good, and even that doesn't guarantee success, it just gives the game a better chance.

    As a publisher entering a new form of business I think they should accept they aren't going to have huge success from the start. Learn about the game indusrty and study what is successful and try to build on it. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Don't expect to be Activision or Electronic Arts from your very first release. It took those companies over 25 years to get to where they're at today.

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 12:29 pm PT

    Movie tie-ins suck (well, 95% of the time)... I'm amazed it took them this long to see it that way. I think this is actually a victory for gaming as we might get something other than a tie-in.

  • Regisland

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 12:14 pm PT

    wanted was a great game,but it just didnt have nothing that made people buy it

  • deadcowboy6

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 12:08 pm PT

    Wanted was a really fun rent

  • P8rt

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 11:26 am PT

    The video game industry is an incredibly demanding consumer driven industry that can't be approached half heartedly even by its established players.Hollywood has A LOT that it could bring to the table that would be good for gaming and I'm not talking about IPs especially new unproven ones.Come back when you know you have something worth gambling on.

  • MrPMPisBeefy

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 9:49 am PT

    Ha! It was only a matter of time. Now maybe other companies will get the hint.

  • witty-name

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 7:06 am PT

    Is that the faint echoing sound of Justice I hear resounding off the walls? Where were you ten years ago eh!? Damn right they can shut down. Movie-tie-ins are so famously consistently bad, and have been for SO many years, it's something that's always puzzled me why people who are PAID to do this sort of thing can't wake up and realize that hey, a NAME and a license isn't actually going to do all the work. Stop press eh. Now stop ruining good potentials and come back when you're ready to make some GOOD GAMES.

  • Excedra

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 4:41 am PT

    Is it safe to come out now? It is!!! It is!!!! yay

  • chaos20

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 3:45 am PT

    i thought this game was average, something to waste a few hours on, good story though. But as far as i remember the only good films-to games was the original die hard trilogy and aliens vs predator 1+2

    Batman arkham asylums good too

  • BatThink

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 2:15 am PT

    Good, we dont want any crappy movie games at all, shouldn't have taken so long for some people to relise that movies to games SUCK!

  • -Five0-

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 12:12 am PT

    yeah. booo

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