A Tale of Two Companies

Two of the biggest videogame publishers are heading in different directions on the content side, but they're both succeeding at their individual games. Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, has switched its focus to cultivating new and original intellectual properties. While the game maker still has the lucrative Harry Potter, "Lord of the Rings" and "Superman" franchises, EA dropped James Bond this year to hone its resources on new games. Activision picked up that James Bond license and will deliver its first game in May 2008 for next generation platforms--timed to the release of the next James Bond film (after "Casino Royale"). Activision has some of the biggest movies of 2007 locked in on the games side, including "Shrek the Third," "Spider-Man 3," "Transformers," and "Bee Movie."

Activision, the second largest publisher, has relied heavily on Hollywood licensed content like recent releases "X-Men: The Official Game" and "Over the Hedge." While the company does have original game franchises like "Call of Duty," "Guitar Hero," and the Tony Hawk games, a key part of its strategy is to reach the masses through Hollywood licenses. Although the publisher has recently released poorly reviewed games like "X-Men" and "Over the Hedge" in recent months, the game giant was one of the first to show the true potential of a Hollywood-licensed game with "Spider-Man." With serious development time and money spent on that franchise, gamers were treated to an experience that blended elements of Sam Raimi's vision with a deep interactive experience. In many ways, "Spider-Man" set the bar for gamers, who have suffered through decades of shoddy Hollywood ripoffs in the gaming space.

Electronic Arts was also instrumental in changing the face of Hollywood games. When it picked up New Line's "Lord of the Rings" franchise, it worked closely with Peter Jackson on "The Two Towers," which resulted in all of the actors coming on board. EA also showed the pure strength of the Hollywood IP with its games. At the time, Vivendi Games held the rights to the J.R.R. Tolkien "Lord of the Rings" books. Gamers balked at the book-based games in favor of the movie-based games and Vivendi ended up scrapping the bulk of its games. EA now owns the book rights as well as the movie rights. "Lord of the Rings" is the one franchise that EA has grown beyond its Hollywood roots. It's turned the universe into a gaming franchise with new experiences like "Lord of the Rings: The White Council" and "Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II."

That franchise avenue is the new direction for the giant company, but it doesn't mean Hollywood is not still a major component in the way it works. Steven Spielberg is developing several original projects with the company. And more Hollywood talent is getting involved in the creation of existing game franchises at EA, as well. At the end of the day, whether a game is original or based on a Hollywood IP, as long as it's a quality game, it has the potential to become a huge hit and a sustainable franchise.