By Lorin Baumgarten

Welcome back ‘Axeheads. Sorry for my absence last week, but that crazy little thing called life got the best of me. Damn you life! Damn you! That may be one for you, you sorry-ass, schedule-ruining pustule, but I am back and I’m ready for you this time! So with out further adieu, let’s get into a good ‘ol Gaming Matters. This week I am trying something a bit different in that I am writing my column before hearing the week’s episode of EpicBattleCry. Generally, I listen to the show and write my article in response to the show’s discussions. But this time I have some early intel on the content and I am going to go ahead without hearing the thoughts of our pusillanimous punsters of the program. What will be really shocking in this week’s column, however, is not when I am writing it – no. What will probably surprise you the most is what this week’s column is predicated upon. What the hell am I talking about, you wonder? Well here it is – and it hurts me to say. This week’s Gaming Matters is founded on the idea that….ok….here goes……I agree with Bobby Kotick!

Wow – even though I was only writing that as opposed to saying it, I still think I just threw-up a little in my mouth. But, it’s true. I agree with an idea that big, bad Bobby put forth this week, though I do disagree with some of the specifics. The idea I am referring to is one that Kotick talked about during Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in Newport Beach, CA last week. According to Industry Gamers, Kotick put forth the idea of selling video game movies made up of in-game cut-scenes to gaming fans. Kotick brought this up specifically in the context of Starcraft II and the more than an hour of cut-scenes contained in that game. Here is what he had to say on the matter:

“If we were to take that hour, or hour and a half, take it out of the game, and we were to go to our audiences for whom we have their credit card information as well as a direct relationship and ask, ‘Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?’, my guess is that … you’d have the biggest opening weekend of any film ever.”

Snobby Bobby also threw around the possibility of a 20-30 dollar price tag for said movie (which we will discuss in a minute) and also mentioned that [unlike Hollywood] “our virtual characters don’t have agents, they don’t have managers, they don’t have lawyers”, suggesting that it would be easier for the gaming industry to produce these “films”. Likewise, Kotick pointed out that the gaming industry isn’t bound by the “theatrical release” convention that Hollywood faces and that our industry could release movies direct to consumers via download. Bob the Slob also felt that gamers are such enthusiasts that not only would they pay to download the movie, but that they would even pay again if their was a subsequent theatrical release of the “movie”.

So how do you feel so far about all of this? My first gut reaction was that Bobby the Boob was, once again, out of his mind. But then I took a step back, brewed a cup of tea, and pulled out my pipe and smoking jacket and pondered the matter for a short while. What I came up with was that this was actually a great idea! The details are a bit off, but the core concept is solid. As a matter of fact, as I was playing Mafia II recently, I thought to myself, “I would love to see these cut-scenes as a movie.” I liked the characters and the story and the graphics were just beautiful. Additionally, I have always thought that the gaming industry needs to get its product into movie theaters, both so fans can see some of this stuff on the big screen and to expose the mass audience of non-gamers to the incredibly high quality of today’s games.

But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. First of all, clearly you couldn’t simply remove the cut-scenes from a game and sew them together and then call it a movie. Almost all games forward a story’s narrative during the gameplay portions of the game as well as through the cut-scenes. Simply mashing the cut-scenes together would, more often than not, result in a dis-jointed, patchwork piece of film (not to mention that many games already offer you the ability to re-watch cut-scenes like that directly from the game disc after you have viewed them once). At the very least, transitions would have to be created. But even with transitions, would you want to watch the exact same thing you just played through? I don’t think so. But if there was a significant addition of material added to the in-game cut-scenes to really create a “movie feel”, I would consider paying for such a piece of material.

But let’s be clear about something: there is no way I would pay $20-30 dollars for it! Most DVD’s go for $10-20 new, and certainly dip to or well below that price just a month after release. So why would I pay more than that for “game movies”? Especially when you consider that if I buy a DVD I can not only watch it on my TV, but I can rip it and watch it on my PC, PSP, phone, mp3 player, etc. Without getting these video game movies on a disc, my guess is that your ability to transition them to different pieces of hardware will be highly regulated (can anyone say DRM nightmare?). My feeling is that, given that a significant amount of the content will be the exact same as what is on my game disc, I would pay maybe $5-10 for this as a piece of DLC. Now if the developers created a full 90 minute to 2 hour movie of all new content, I would consider paying up to $15-20 to buy it and $5 to rent it. But that is about it. The idea that I would pay $20-30 for a movie made up primarily of in-game cut-scenes is utterly ridiculous.

Now, Bobby the Bobblehead made it clear that this was just some of his early thoughts on the subject and that the numbers weren’t final. So if we forgive the money-hungry munchkin the talk of pricing, we might have an interesting idea here. What do you think? Are you interested in seeing “movies” made from cut-scens of games? Interested enough to pay for it? How about getting to see them in a movie theater? Does that up the anti for you? Swing that ‘Axe and sound off below!