These days, you'd pretty much be forgiven for thinking a licensed video game would flop at launch. It's been that way for a long time. Whether they're movie tie-ins or games mined off the hype of an existing product (hello many, many Star Wars games), licensed games have always had a pretty lousy reputation as pure stinkers.
Over the past week, however, we've seen some interesting projects surface that look like they could change. Quite a few of these come from Paramount and its renewed efforts to break into the gaming industry. Not only did we reveal that The Last Ronin is still alive, but we're also getting a full blown Star Trek horror game being made by the Bloober Team.
Paramount has more faith in video games
This appears to be due to a change in strategy at Paramount itself, with the company recently admitting that it previously viewed games as an “afterthought” rather than its own medium with its own strengths.
“We want to grow as a game publisher within a global entertainment company,” says Shawn Kittelsen, senior vice president and head of creative and production, in an interview with Variety. He goes on to say that games used to be seen as “somewhere at the bottom of the flywheel. You tried to connect the movie releases with the games based on the movies, or it was just an afterthought.”
Paramount Games boss suggests there could be a Yellowstone game after all
Yellowstone isn't one of the core properties Paramount Games is targeting, but Shawn Kittelsen says they're considering it.
Instead, Paramount now views video games as a “core driver of storytelling, community and growth across Paramount,” which will be good news for anyone who's a fan of Paramount's vast collection of IP. We're already seeing it bear fruit as well, with the upcoming release of the very promising fighting game Avatar: The Last Airbender, which looks incredibly fluid and true to the cartoon.
Of course, none of the exciting games Paramount has lined up for the future have yet to be released, and they could very well be stinkers once again. That being said, Paramount's effort to work with industry-proven developers like Platinum Games and Bloober Team shows that those in higher positions are more clued up these days and should bring great times for its games.
