Recently BusinessWeek had an exclusive interview with James Cameron. The director revealed plans to design a MMOG in tandem with the filming of his next film and have the game release before the movie. The current formula for releasing MMORPGs based on movies is obviously to release the movie first, then make the game. Cameron's approach goes against the conventional wisdom. I admire his vision, but I think he's wrong on this one.
There's a lot of speculation about what exactly Project 880 is. It could be the film adaptation of Battle Angel Alita, which you can read about at Protaku.
Developing games before the parent movie is complete is not completely new. For offline titles, development is often begun before the movie is complete. The games are usually released just before the movie hits the box office. King Kong was the latest example of this system, and it worked pretty well as the game was a technical marvel.
MMORPGs are a different kind of animal though. They require a level of planning and content development that far exceeds your average action/adventure title. If this Project 880 movie is going to see a release anytime in the next 4 years, they'll need to start making the MMORPG right now.
The last MMORPG that was based on a movie was The Matrix Online. MXO was developed during the filming of the latter 2 Matrix films, and released months after the series was done. The only other MMORPG based on a film series was Star Wars Galaxies, which obviously had decades of source material to work from and a flexible release schedule. Both MXO and SWG had established material to work from and no pressure to release, this Project 880 game won't have those advantages.
There's also the question of what happens to the MMO if the movie flops. MMORPGs are a long-term investment, and players are often fickle. If the movie flops and subs drop, will the companies involved have the resolve to keep going?
I'm excited about the increased interest in MMORPGs, but I would really like to see more focus put on the execution of great games instead of gimmicks. The game industry has already had its number of Hollywood-inspired flops, the nascent MMORPG genre really could do without another one.
Tags for this post: MMORPG, James Cameron, Project 880
There's a lot of speculation about what exactly Project 880 is. It could be the film adaptation of Battle Angel Alita, which you can read about at Protaku.
Developing games before the parent movie is complete is not completely new. For offline titles, development is often begun before the movie is complete. The games are usually released just before the movie hits the box office. King Kong was the latest example of this system, and it worked pretty well as the game was a technical marvel.
MMORPGs are a different kind of animal though. They require a level of planning and content development that far exceeds your average action/adventure title. If this Project 880 movie is going to see a release anytime in the next 4 years, they'll need to start making the MMORPG right now.
The last MMORPG that was based on a movie was The Matrix Online. MXO was developed during the filming of the latter 2 Matrix films, and released months after the series was done. The only other MMORPG based on a film series was Star Wars Galaxies, which obviously had decades of source material to work from and a flexible release schedule. Both MXO and SWG had established material to work from and no pressure to release, this Project 880 game won't have those advantages.
There's also the question of what happens to the MMO if the movie flops. MMORPGs are a long-term investment, and players are often fickle. If the movie flops and subs drop, will the companies involved have the resolve to keep going?
I'm excited about the increased interest in MMORPGs, but I would really like to see more focus put on the execution of great games instead of gimmicks. The game industry has already had its number of Hollywood-inspired flops, the nascent MMORPG genre really could do without another one.
Tags for this post: MMORPG, James Cameron, Project 880