Activision Wants To Sell You Video Game Cutscenes
Video games have evolved since their debut all those years ago. While there are some obvious exceptions to the rule, the general principal behind the video games of today's day-and-age is telling a story. Cutscenes may not be the favorite way to do that, but if the developers can make them engaging enough, they certainly do attract the eye. For example, the cutscenes within StarCraft II are some of the best to date. And while the visuals may not need to be breathtaking, as long as the story gets across in an enjoyable way, thousands of gamers out there will sit idly by and watch as the story develops before them. Activision wants to take advantage of that.
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision's Blizzard, stood in front of a large crowd at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in California yesterday, and told those listening to him that he believes if his company were to strip out the hour and a half or so of cutscenes from StarCraft II, they'd have the biggest opening weekend of any film. Ever. The deal is that he believes, wholeheartedly it would seem, that gamers out there enjoy the scenes so much, that they would be willing to pay between $20 and $30 for the "movie."
Whether it's fortunate or not, Kotick added that while he believes this method would be ridiculously prosperous for his company and all those involved, the cutscene movie or anything like it, wouldn't be around for another five years or so. By then, we don't imagine that someone would want to buy the StarCraft II movie, considering there will be other cutscenes they'll be watching. Let alone having already seen them, or skipped them, enough.
Video game publishers and developers are certainly trying to make money. After seeing companies like Sony consider the thought of charging for online play for triple-A titles, along with third party publishers like EA already doing it, having a company come out and say they want to charge for a cutscene-spliced movie seems to be the next logical step. Is it the right one? That's up to you to decide.
[via Kotaku]