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Hollywood Ate My Consoles
by The Bearer

Has anyone else noticed the latest trend taking videogames by storm?  Of course you have.  How could you not?  It seems more and more games are going the route of signing on recognizable Hollywood talent to star in their games.  You’ve got Rockstar signing on virtually every single actor who’s ever appeared in a gangster movie to voice the GTA characters, you’ve got Electronic Arts hiring virtually everyone from the current James Bond cast to star in their latest game, you’ve got Atari and the Wachowski brothers working hand in hand on Enter the Matrix, and in perhaps the most involved signing yet, you’ve got Sony hiring Jet Li for the sole purpose of building an entire game around him and his martial arts magic.  I’ll be the first to admit that on the surface this seems like a great thing.  How could it not be?  Games have grown so big and so popular that Hollywood has not only taken notice, but also is scrambling to get deeply involved.  However, when you really stop to think about it, maybe this isn’t the greatest thing, or even a good thing, to happen to our beloved videogames.  Please allow me to explain and detail these concerns for you, and then you, Joe or Jane Videogamer can decide for yourself, “Do I really want Hollywood to invade my gaming?”

My first concern, is the most basic and easily explained of my concerns, price.  Hollywood talent is not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination.  Never mind that the medium of videogames is getting your famous face in front of thousands, if not millions of potential fans, the kind of exposure that you can’t put a price tag on, the kind of exposure that could build momentous goodwill for your career.  We videogamers are a loyal bunch.  We’re loyal to our favorite console, we’re loyal to our favorite publishers/developers, and we’re loyal to our favorite franchises.  None of this matters to the over inflated egos of Hollywood.  They want to be paid.  I cannot even begin to guess how much money EA had to dole out to sign the Bond cast for their game.  I would venture to guess that it exceeded the amount of capital it took to develop and make the game.  You know it had to have taken some serious bank to convince the likes of Pierce Brosnan to appear in a lowly videogame, much less Dame Judi Dench and the rest of the mostly stellar and “big” cast.  So why should we care?  It’s simple.  We’re about to move into another generation of console eons more powerful than the current batch and with that increased power comes increased cost for research and development.  If this trend continues with hiring actors to star in videogames, their asking price will no doubt also go up and the next thing you know, we’re looking at $75 games, at best.  Don’t think it’ll happen?  Maybe, maybe not, but what I can tell you is that it’s a small miracle that we haven’t seen games pass the $50 threshold yet.  That price point has been around since forever and we can now begin to see on the horizon the time that that will forever change.  $50 is a lot of money for entertainment of this nature, but it’s doable for most of us.  $75 on the other hand is a whole lot of groceries.  How many games that we might have taken a chance on at $50 will suddenly fall by the wayside at $75?  You can most certainly kiss goodbye the offbeat, the niche, and likely even the innovative games that “fly under the radar”.  While it’s great that games have become so mainstream and are enjoying a popularity never before seen or enjoyed, what we must keep in mind is that today’s “average” gamer is far different than yesterday’s average gamer.  Today’s “average” gamer has no appreciation of the hours spent playing “Pong” and thinking that it was quite possibly the greatest thing ever.  Today’s “average” gamer has no appreciation of the intricacies of the sprite based, side scrolling, pulling your hair out, eyes bleeding because its so damn hard to look at it games of yore.  Today’s “average” gamer wants easy.  They want games that they can breeze through, games that would not even be recognized as games in days past.  They want flash and glitter, games that are “pretty” to look at, even if they play like crap.  There’s an old adage that says, “You can’t polish a turd”.  I beg to differ.  I can show you games by the droves that have been at or near the top of the sales charts that were absolutely abysmal to play, games that are devoid of any ounce of fun, much less a soul, but were “great” to look at, hence the great sales.  And lastly, today’s “average” gamer wants names or licenses immediately recognizable.  Once again, check the sales charts.  They’re full of games that otherwise wouldn’t have been purchased and maybe not even been made, but since they have recognizable names and or licenses attached, today’s “average” gamer buys them in droves.  Don’t you think Hollywood will seize upon this trend?  Of course they will.  We’ve already established that the bottom line and most important factor in Hollywood is the almighty dollar, creativity and soul be damned.  It’s much easier and therefore cheaper to rush together a sub-par game, than it is to take the time and capital to hire the very best talent to create the very best games.  What we’re likely to get, and unfortunately we’re already seeing it to some degree, is cookie cutter games that use the same tired engine and mechanics over and over, but with a different name or face attached to it to make it seem new and exciting to today’s “average” gamer.

Pierce Brosnan in James Bond: Everything or Nothing

My next concern is also my biggest, what affect will Hollywood have on the creative direction of games?  Hollywood images are a finely tuned, manufactured, and fiercely protected property.  We’ve already read the stories of Sony having to contact Jet Li concerning various sequences in the game for his approval and blessings, including one instance where they had to have his permission for his videogame character to engage in combat with a female character because it was something that he refuses to do in his movies.  Now, I really don’t have a problem with it in this instance, because I have no desire to see male on female violence.  But it does illustrate the potential ways that developers could be hamstrung in bringing their vision to fruition.  What if the actor doesn’t want his doppelganger to do what’s in the game?  What if the actor doesn’t think he or she looks cool enough in the game?  What if they don’t like the script?  What if they’re constantly demanding changes?  What if the developer finally gets to the point where they’ve had enough with actor X?  Well too bad.  They’ve already spent the money to hire him or her and to render them into their game.  Now they’re faced with having to shell out more money to go through the process with someone else.  What do you think the publisher will have them do?  They’re going to tell the developer to do whatever they have to do to appease their “investment”.  We’ve all read the horror stories of temperamental stars on movie sets and their outrageous demands.  How much worse will it be for games, especially when the elitist Hollywood star feels that the medium is below their standards to begin with?  The biggest concern, within this concern, is that games will no longer be developed and created for the right reasons, but will be built around the persona (s) of an actor or a group of actors.  Just like movies are often made for a specific actor type, if not a specific actor, games could also soon be in the same boat.

Jet Li in Rise to Honor

And finally, last, but certainly not least, is a simple question.  Do we really need Hollywood talent in our games?  There are actually two answers to this question.  On the one hand, if a game is based on a movie license, then by all means, yes.  Who wants to play a game based on a movie license without the characters from the movie?  In this instance Hollywood talent is not only needed, but also appreciated.  It adds a sense of authenticity and immersion when you’re playing a game based on a movie or a familiar story.  On the other hand, if there is no movie tie in, I truly do not see a compelling reason to have a Hollywood star attached to a game.  Would Tomb Raider have been any more popular had Lara been modeled and voiced by Angelina Jolie from the very beginning?  Would Metal Gear Solid have been better because some high profile actor signed on to play Snake?  How about Final Fantasy?  How about Zelda?  How about any game that any of us love and enjoy that is not infused with Hollywood?  We cared about these characters and countless others not because of who they were rendered to look like or because of who gave voice to their words.  We cared because they were unique beings, doing things we only dreamed or wished we could.  We cared because we enjoyed guiding them through their trials and tribulations.  We cared most of all, quite simply, because they are our own.  Beings constructed of polygons and sprites, imbued with characteristics and motivations, by, well, us.  All of our beloved videogame characters were created and given life by people just like us.  People who love the same videogames and the same subject matter we do, whether it be fantasy, military, sports, or some lovelorn teenage boy ready to save the world.  The only difference between them and us is that they are the people who took that love and decided to do something with it for the enjoyment of the rest of us.

In closing, do I really believe that Hollywood will come to own our consoles?  Probably not, but I do believe that if this current trend continues to blossom and bloom into the next generation of consoles, gaming as we know it and love it, will be forever changed.  Sadly, if for only the reason that Hollywood has become so formulaic in their movies that there is no reason why they won’t try to control games in the same way.  Innovative games will suddenly be like the independent movies that Hollywood often refuses to touch with a ten-foot pole.  Those, dear reader, are the games I will miss the most, the ICO’s, the No One Can Stop Mr. Domino’s, the Beyond Good and Evil’s, The Prince of Persia’s, and so may others.  Games that dared to be different, games that bucked the traditions of today, games that broke the rules and succeeded in their execution, games that failed to post large sales despite their immense quality and or fun.

Those will be the type of games in five years that will put a pain in the pit of your stomach when you realize they’ll never be again.  Not in a new world of various formulaic sequels to Hollywood productions, whether created for the movie screen or for our consoles.  Maybe someday we’ll get “Terminator 8 coming to a Playstation 6 near you” staring the now deceased Arnold and written and directed by the cloned offspring of James Cameron.  I shudder to imagine it.  Maybe I will eventually take up golf after all.

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