Developers should say no to half-baked collaborations

As the former Shiny Entertainment boss, Dave Perry has worked on his fair share of movie licensed video games, notably The Matrix and The Terminator.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Perry offered some words of advice for developers offered “half-baked” deals to work on movie licensed video games.

“When you’re offered a relationship that seems half-baked, just say no. Because you’re going to get no thanks for it at the end of the day,” said Perry. “I’ve experienced it in multiple different ways. I did the Terminator game back in the day and with that we had no support at all. But then I did Aladdin with Disney and we had remarkable support.“

If the right ingredients are there, Perry believes movie licensed video games can be a success.

“To apply the best production co-ordinators and producers – that level of talent is expensive but worth it in the long run. If it’s funded well and you’re as serious as a heart attack about this then those people will work at their best and you’ll have the best product,” he said.

Perry hopes the lacklustre approach to movie licenses, putting a movie logo on the game box without a care what the finished product is, will soon be a thing of the past.

“It’s about betting on the talent. It’s about having people that show up with really, really great talent and vision and getting them together and giving them the money they need to work on their projects,” said Perry. “It’s not about buying logos and saying ‘We want to put your movie logo on our game box although we don’t care what the finished product is’. Hopefully that’s not going to happen any more.“

The movie licensed video game is unlikely to go away though, with Harry Potter currently sitting at the top of the UK chart and titles such as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End doing well earlier in the year – neither of which could be classed as great video games.