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Why Games Based on Movies Disappeared (And Why They’re Coming Back)

Movie games have been cursed ever since ET on the Atari 2600. Most of the problem is they're rushed and produced on low budgets to cash in on the movie when it's released. Given time, you can make a good movie game. Just most studios/publishers can't be bothered. And heck, they sell even if they're awful. Parents buy them for their kids because it's a franchise they recognize.
 
They never disappeared. Most big budget movies from Disney, for example, are accompanied with several electronic games across multiple platforms.
 
Always found it funny seeing people getting excited when a game based on an upcoming movie was about to be released. Lamers!

I knew better than that. Any game based on a movie, especially those subtitled "The Game", is instant garbage.

There have been a few exceptions. Chronicles of Riddick EFBB is very good.
 
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That Hobbit game they reference in the article is really, really terrible (tried it out on my iPhone). Its basically a carbon copy of certain browser games (Tribal Wars is very similar, but there are many of them with slight changes in mechanics), but infinitely more difficult to play than through a browser, and with a huge focus on pay-to-win.
 
Some movie-games have been done well. Riddick, transformers war for cybertron series to name two.

When the game is a cash-in to coincide with movie release, that's when it sucks
 
Movie games can't be very good because you have such a short development cycle, since the game needs to be done in time for it to be released with the movie. Game development times are normally much longer than movie development times, so there is never enough time to make a complete quality game with a new movie.

That said, making a game based on older movies can and has worked ok, such as SW:KOTOR, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, and Cronicles of Riddick. Since development time isn't such a big problem, the developers are able to make a game using their normal process, so the success rate is far closer to the statistical average.
 
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Riddick & Transformer war for cybertron were not movie based. They are stand alone canon.
That is why they worked, much the same way Batman Arkham series & Ultimate Spiderman were excellent games. There were no movies to tie into, they were stand alone works.
Movie tie-ins are rushed, usually poorly scripted as to not give away spoilers to the actual movie.
 
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