DC Comics games will 'forget the movies,' focus on comic fiction

Warner Bros. Montreal has been working on a number of unannounced projects set in the DC Universe. So, what's the studio's strategy for their upcoming comic book games? "Forget the movies."

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Warner Bros. Montreal has been working on a number of unannounced projects set in the DC Universe. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has been focused on doing video games--and doing them right--ever since the runaway success of Batman: Arkham Asylum. So, what's the studio's strategy for their upcoming comic book games? "Forget the movies."

"We're not satisfied anymore with sub-par superhero games," WB's Martin Carrier said. "Now, it's like they should be better than all the other games."

Carrier says that the best way to ensure a quality superhero game is to simply avoid movie tie-ins altogether. "It's not about hitting the movie date or some arbitrary date," Carrier told Canadian Business (via IGN). "It was giving the game the time it needs to be successful and really just concentrating on the quality of it."

The flexibility offered by not being a movie tie-in allows developers not to follow the script of a film, but draw from decades of material from the comics. "It’s really about make the game what it needs to be and forget the movies," WB's Reid Schneider added.

Schenider argues that avoiding movie cash-ins is not only good for developers, but it will ultimately help WB's bottom line. "If you just look at the market, the number of those and the money they’re bringing in is dwindling.,. There’s a real stratification of games where only the really high-quality games with mass market appeal are making money. That whole middle layer, where there were movie games or cash-ins--that market is gone."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    December 9, 2011 8:45 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, DC Comics games will 'forget the movies,' focus on comic fiction.

    Warner Bros. Montreal has been working on a number of unannounced projects set in the DC Universe. So, what's the studio's strategy for their upcoming comic book games? "Forget the movies."

    • reply
      December 9, 2011 8:52 AM

      Great! Only took them 20 years to figure out!

      • reply
        December 9, 2011 9:02 AM

        Yeah, the worst parts of licensed games are restrictive fiction, hard unmovable release dates to tie-in with movie releases, and having to pump out a game every year to hold on to the IP license. Since WB owns DC Comics, they can avoid all three of these by not tying to movie releases. There's still the restrictions of the comic series fiction and storyline, but hopefully that can be more of a constructive guideline than a roadblock.

        Meanwhile, Activision is still toiling away with the Transformers, Spider-Man, X-Men and James Bond licenses. High Moon apparently is developing the next Transformers game, and so has a chance to be one of the better games in that series, but aside from a few examples, the Activision licensed games aren't that good.

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        December 9, 2011 1:49 PM

        Yeah who would have thought that releasing games when they are done would be a good idea?

      • reply
        December 10, 2011 8:27 AM

        It's only in this console generation though that the strategy of middling tie-in games hasn't proven popular. It's not like they're making this move because now they care so much about game quality, it's because now they can make the case that focusing on game quality will help their bottom line. Still, they're still about 5 years late on this.

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          December 10, 2011 8:28 AM

          Meant profitable not popular. Not trying to suggest that such games were embraced in the past for their quality.

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      December 9, 2011 9:52 AM

      *cues Handel's Hallelujah chorus*

      Finally, someone has seen the light. Can't wait to see what they can do with their IP library. Perhaps even make a good Superman game? *holds breath*

    • reply
      December 9, 2011 10:20 AM

      Having to tie-in with a movie release date is an obvious one. The other headache developers have to face is that they usually have to get approvals from either the movie studio that holds the license or even the director heading the movie. Which translates into they have more control over the game than they should vs the actual developer. The developer makes significant choices to meet both the approval process and the tie-in deadline. Result = craptacular game. Again.

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      December 9, 2011 10:22 AM

      If they could pump out a decent God of War clone with Wonder Woman I'd be happy.

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      December 9, 2011 2:14 PM

      The Green Lantern game looked decent =/

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      December 11, 2011 9:40 PM

      Developer makes a good game with a known IP, releases it when it's done, and it sells well, even without a movie tie-in.

      WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT

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