Kudos To Wb For This Great Plan

[Gryph]

The Matrix makers will demand higher payments from publishers who produce poorly reviewed games based on their properties.

While game reviews often have an effect on a publisher's bottom line, that effect has never been quantifiable. However, now, Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment has begun directly tying royalty payments from licensees to ratings from game-review sites.

 

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter last week, WBIE senior vice president Jason Hall revealed that his company is now using review-aggregation sites such as GameRankings.com to determine royalty rates from publishers licensing properties based on Warner Bros. movie, television, or other media. If the game does not achieve an average 70-percent rating, the publisher will have to pay a penalty in the form of higher royalties.

 

"An escalating royalty rate kicks in to help compensate us for the brand damage that's taking place," Hall told the Reporter. "The further away from 70 percent it gets, the more expensive the royalty rate becomes. So, frankly, if the publisher delivers on what they promised--to produce a great game--it's not even an issue."

 

However, Warner Bros.' pricing scheme would have been a huge issue with Enter the Matrix, the best-selling game of 2003 based on a Warner Bros. title. Buoyed by prerelease enthusiasm for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, the cross-platform Enter the Matrix sold four million copies worldwide.

 

But those good sales were in spite of the game getting middling ratings: On game rankings, the PC and PS2 editions have an average score of 66.8 and 66.9 percent, while the GameCube and Xbox versions earned 70.6 percent and 71.5 percent. Combined, all four rankings leave an average of 68.95 percent--just short of Warner Bros.' benchmark.

 

Unsurprisingly, Warner's concrete benchmark is not sitting well with Bruno Bonnell, CEO and president of Atari. "[Enter the Matrix] sold $250 million worldwide," he told the Reporter, "That's what a big major motion picture makes. And Warner Bros. would penalize us because we didn't achieve 70 percent? Are they joking?"

 

However, Hall is adamant in his belief that WBIE's new system will help ensure quality licensed games--like Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings and James Bond-based titles--and prevent misfires such as Ubisoft's Charlie's Angels.

 

"The game industry has had its time to exploit movie studios all day long and to get away with producing inferior products," said Hall. "But, with Warner Brothers, no more...the bad games are over."

 

Credit: Gamespot

 

I must say that penalizing developers for making sub standard games on their brands is a great idea. Ofcourse the ratings game can be tricky and biased but if a game is getting below 70% from many reviewers, it can't be THAT good.

 

Maybe this will bring an end to Enter the Matrix quality games. We can only hope.

Edited May 26, 2004 by GryphonKlaw

[Skythe]

Lame idea since the vast majority of reviewers can't review even if their life depended on it.

[emsley]

I am sorry i did not get to the end of that essay.

 

 

:-]

[Gryph]

I am sorry i did not get to the end of that essay.

 

 

:-]

I don't blame you, it is rather long...perhaps I should have just posted the summary of it from Gamespot.

[Agozer]

I am sorry i did not get to the end of that essay.

 

 

:-]

I don't blame you, it is rather long...perhaps I should have just posted the summary of it from Gamespot.

I was just about to say "Would you please sumamrize it for me?"

....wait, I just did.

 

So, what's this anyway? I a developer makes a crappy game, they have to pay more money for using the lisence? i like it.

 

EDIT: On second though, I don't like it....because Something Awful would run out of material.

Edited May 26, 2004 by Agozer

[Gryph]

Alright, I edited it. I post the Gamespot summary instead of the whole real article for those who hate to read.

[Prican25]

well the game was average and the sequels to the the matrix were poop to me but hell, the game made damn well enough money so warner bros. is just being greedy

[Gryph]

well the game was average and the sequels to the the matrix were poop to me but hell, the game made damn well enough money so warner bros. is just being greedy

Well ofcourse they're being greedy, that's how corporations work. Profit profit profit.

[taratata]

The only ones penalized by this are the developpers who don't have enough imagination to make a good original game, and have to use a license to sell anything. If this can lower the number of "you had the film, now there's the game"-style games, it would be a very good thing.

 

However, I doubt that this would last long. If the penalties are too high, game developpers won't take the risk to produce a game based on a license anymore (a good thing IMO), and WB won't have the revenues from that anymore. I think they'd prefer bad-rated games than no games at all.

[Chaotica]

If a game developer makes a game out of a movie, and the game gets crap reviews, what if the game developer says, "well, it's not my fault - your movie was bollocks to begin with!"

 

Like lots of the movies that are circulating these days...forgive my pessimism.

[taratata]

If a game developer makes a game out of a movie, and the game gets crap reviews, what if the game developer says, "well, it's not my fault - your movie was bollocks to begin with!"

 

Like lots of the movies that are circulating these days...forgive my pessimism.

Then it's the people buying the game that would be penalized