Vivendi Keeps Movie Ties

The newly shortened Vivendi is keeping its ties to Hollywood, despite being severed when GE purchased Vivendi Universal a few years ago and merged that company with NBC. The game studio has a new PSP game timed to ship this summer with the release of Universal Pictures' "Miami Vice" movie and an assortment of games launching this fall with the release of 20th Century Fox's "Eragon" movie. Vivendi also has a PSP game, "50 Cent: Bulletproof," a port of the best-selling PS2 and Xbox game from last year. That's on top of the full slate of games that the publisher shipped a few weeks before "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown" took off at the box office (another game through its Fox Interactive ties).

The "Miami Vice" game is interesting because it's the second example of a new trend for Hollywood games. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced earlier this week that it will ship a PSP game based on Warner Bros.' film, "300," day and date with that movie. Like the "Miami Vice" movie game, it will be exclusive to the PSP format.

The PSP often allows for a shorter development cycle than a full-fledged PS2 and Xbox game, which is offering game studios the chance to get a decent day-and-date release out with a film. In the past, Game Boy Advance games often shipped with films when studios didn't have a full two years to work on a current generationtie-in. That's changing with PSP. And the growing PSP audience (Sony has shipped 10 million hardware units worldwide) will only increase the number of movie tie-ins for the platform.

Game studios have been releasing Hollywood-licensed games on PSP as part of a full slate of games. Ubisoft shipped "Peter Jackson's King Kong" for PSP along with every other platform before the film hit theaters last year. EA just shipped a PSP port of its "James Bond From Russia With Love" game and will ship a PSP version of "The Godfather" later this year. THQ shipped a "SpongeBob SquarePants" games based on the Nick TV and film property this year. And Konami Digital Entertainment had a companion "Silent Hill Experience" PSP hybrid title in stores before the launch of the Sony Pictures film this weekend. (While that title wasn't a game, per se, it's another example of how the same consumer can be targeted with the PSP.)

As the PSP grows its installed base, and more movie-based games head to that platform, it should open up new opportunities for home entertainment studios when films like "300" and "Miami Vice" are released on DVD, and potentially UMD. These types of tie-ins could be just what the UMD market needs on the movie side. And if publishers and studios are willing to work together, hybrid film and game releases and bundled products could target the same audience on PSP.

Comments

[Frank Nelson]

Does the Miami Vice game have Jan Hammer's incredible music? If not they shouldn't even bother releassing it.

Frank