Report: Brash cofounder bolts

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Oct 14, 2008 6:06 pm PT

Variety reports that the Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull has resigned from the board of the upstart publisher after spate of duds, including Alvin and the Chipmunks.

After making many Hollywood headlines with such hits as Batman Begins and 300, Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull entered the game fray last March. Then, in June 2007, he got plenty of ink in the game trades by raising $400 million for his all-new game publisher Brash Entertainment, which specializes in turning film and television properties into games.

"I mean, they're chimps! In space! How can we lose?!"

Over the next year, Brash announced a series of movie and TV game adaptations, including 300, Saw, and Prison Break, as well as a deal with Lair developer Factor 5 for an unnamed tie-in. However, Brash's initial film-based games Jumper, Space Chimps, and Alvin and the Chipmunks were received even more poorly than their film inspirations. According to the NPD Group, the former has sold just over 47,000 units domestically on the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2, with the latter game selling just 1,000 units more on the Wii, PC, DS, 360, and PS2.

Brash's poor sales performance was highlighted in May when president Nicholas Longano had suddenly "moved on" and handed over his responsibilities to CEO Mitch Davis. Now it looks like Davis will have another portfolio on his hands. Variety is now reporting that Tull himself has also abruptly resigned, again reportedly due to being "disappointed with the quality of Brash's games." He will still retain an interest in Brash as a result of his "significant" investment in the company.

It remains to be seen whether or not Brash can change course with Davis in an increasingly empty executive wheelhouse. According to Variety, the publisher has several projects still in the works, including Night at the Museum 2, Where the Wild Things Are, and the upcoming remake of Clash of the Titans. Meanwhile, Tull's Legendary Pictures is at work on such game-based films as Len Wiseman's Gears of War and the still-in-development big-screen edition of World of Warcraft.

18 Comments

  • dark_being

    Posted Oct 24, 2008 4:54 am PT

    They were surprised that Spca Chinps and Alvin didn't sell well? are they high? who in thier right mind would want to play such games? develope good games, with good story and gameplay, and ppl will buy them! Maybe try an original concept, I don't know...

  • VenomRitual

    Posted Oct 18, 2008 10:39 am PT

    these games are awful. i hate games based on movies. almost as much as I hate movies based on games. spiderman 2 was an exception.

  • CaptainLunchbox

    Posted Oct 16, 2008 10:57 am PT

    And they talked the company up SO much in that Game Informer interview. Tie-in games are mostly garbage- it's just a fact. I understand why they tried to dedicate a company to better the overall process, but in the end, it crashed and burned.

  • cdx00

    Posted Oct 16, 2008 9:52 am PT

    Working at a GameStop, I cannot tell you how many times I was asked to return Brash Entertainment games (i.e. ALvin & the Chipmunks, Space Chimps, ect.)

    Good riddance. This means a whole lot less work for me and tons less returns. Keep movies where they belong.

  • maverick_76

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 3:23 pm PT

    Yeah it would be nice if these games were good but the problem is that these developers try to make these games in the same time it takes for a studio to brainstorm, shoot and market a movie. That just does not work. Games take several years to develop correctly, while a movie can be shot in a matter of weeks.

  • DastardlyD

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 12:39 pm PT

    Resigning from your own company less than two years after you created it? How... brash. (Puts pinky to mouth with a slight grin)

    You would think that if someone put that much money into a business, you wouldn't leave it to die a slow and painful death (which it will) so early in the game. Okay, so you screwed up on some crappy movie-to-game adaptions. Join the crowd! You don't learn by winning. These types of games aren't going anywhere, you just have to want to make them good. It can - and has - been done.

  • xraystar

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 11:22 am PT

    what a dumb investment, why not just specialize in making original games?

  • tudyniuz

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 10:05 am PT

    @snoopy248:There are some though but generally yeah`

  • dual_barrel

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 9:55 am PT

    Good luck Brash, with the all the bashing from people if the adaptions start to suck.

  • Timstuff

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 9:43 am PT

    What's the point of spending 400 million dollars to make a game studio if all your going to do is flood the market with more crappy licensed games? Aren't there enough of those already?

  • jmartin1016

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 6:46 am PT

    Hope this doesn't cause problems for the Gears movie.

  • BlackCrow2

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 6:17 am PT

    I thought the Space Chimps game was pretty fun, but Jumper sucked. I'd love to see a Saw or 300 game.

  • snoopy248

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 3:32 am PT

    This again proves that movie adaptations rarely prove popular.

  • Merl57

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 11:31 pm PT

    that's because gamers are majority older than they used to be and make wiser choices on what money they want to part with I have over 10 games that come out in the next 2 months that I want to buy so bad

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 10:29 pm PT

    I think the two need to go and propagate a kid ... typically two terrible people make the kid want to excell so much that the child is a prodigy !

  • VegetaMaelstrom

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 9:35 pm PT

    Looks like Thomas Tull was the video game equivalent of Uwe Boll. Everything those two men touch becomes pure, unfiltered garbage.

  • SonicRaptor

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 9:07 pm PT

    Space Chimps came out the same day as The Dark Knight. That's really all that needs to be said.

  • Darth_Nater307

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 6:58 pm PT

    I knew those movies sucked, especially "Space Chimps". Good thing I went to see "The Dark Knight" instead.

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