Most people know MTV from their cable channels and awards shows, but the company is gradually becoming a major player in the multibillion-dollar video gaming industry. The company’s “Rock Band” game is a huge seller this holiday season, and MTV’s most profitable video game title to date.
But MTV is not stopping there. The company recently signed a deal with film and television producer Jerry Bruckheimer to create and develop original action-based video games under the MTV brand. Bruckheimer is best known for cinema blockbusters such as Black Hawk Down, National Treasure, and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.
Bruckheimer’s television résumé is also impressive, including hits such as Cold Case and CSI. And while the exact format of the games to be produced has not been revealed, Businessweek.com is reporting that the development deal between MTV and Bruckheimer will be a true collaboration.
While the idea of creating video games that rival feature films is not new, Bruckheimer is probably the biggest Hollywood player to commit to producing games on such a large-scale. Van Toffler, the MTV network president said, “There’s a huge intersection between the fans of Bruckheimer films, our audience and gamers…”
Bruckheimer is said to be setting up a game “incubation” studio, in collaboration with video game designers, graphic artists and writers to develop new titles for MTV games. According to the Business Week story, Bruckheimer’s gaming studio will be involved in all phases of game development, from original concept to distribution and marketing deals, giving the filmmaker a great deal of creative freedom in producing and marketing the games.
More and more, Hollywood is looking to the video game medium as a way to either resell already successful film titles, or to develop new properties. MTV’s deal with Jerry Bruckheimer is a high profile example of Hollywood’s new willingness to expand beyond the film screen and create titles that are specifically designed to be games.
Although Bruckheimer’s record in both film and television is certainly impressive, the verdict remains out on the question of his ability to deliver the goods as a videogame creator. Critics point out that the video game medium is unlike either film or television, and the high degree of interactivity requires a different aesthetic and storyline to be successful.
But if the MTV/Bruckheimer video game venture is successful, you can bet it won’t be long until other top Hollywood names are signing on to create original video games for a wide variety of platforms.
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Yeah, unfortinatly MTV is getting their hands into just about everything these days.
Comment by Justin G — December 27, 2007 @ 2:30 am