In the historical tradition of franchise proliferation with uber successful film series like the
Twilight saga (
Harry Potter,
Lord Of The Rings, and
Indiana Jones for instance), there is this tendency to go forth with the creation of a home entertainment video game that captures the likeness of the characters, events, and mood involved in the stories.
In the case of
Twilight, no such video game (excepting the
Twilight phone video game application and Scene It?
Twilight for the Wii) has been made, and some sources believe that this has led to a loss in potential profit earnings for the franchise.
According to
Computer and Video Games, one expert stated that those potential losses could equal up to millions.
"
Given how hot a property it is, [a Twilight video game] could easily present a seven-figure exploitation opportunity, especially if publishers consider taking it beyond retail gaming and considers network gaming," Nick Gibson, an analyst in the field, stated.
Gibson opined that those involved with the process weren't "
aware of the potential benefits" of such an endeavor, but I'm fairly certain that those involved in the franchise are completely aware of the possibility that a Twilight video game could fare well in the marketplace.
Other factors, instead, are probably driving the decision to hesitate on pushing forward with game development. Here are a few possibilities:
It could be possible that marketers don't see Twilight fans as avid gamers with active playing systems. This may or may not be a misconception about the demographics of this fanbase, but nevertheless it is a possible perception. (For the record, I have a PS3 and an XBOX 360 and would
love to play a
Twilight video game!)
- Difficulties in Translation
Another consideration may be the difficulty in transforming the characters, voices, and occurrences into video game format. For instance, how could they portray the elegance of the meadow scene in video game format? It'd be ripe for criticism whether good or bad, that's for sure.
Speaking of criticism, look at the
Avatar video game. For those of you unfamiliar with the
Avatar video game, I've played it, and it's
bad. The video game suffers the problem of being a poor adaptation of a popular film. Instead of becoming Jake Sully and hanging out with Neytiri in the exotic Pandora wilderness, you are some other marine, forced to kill a bunch of native creatures and Na'Vi people. This is probably because there wasn't a lot of action to recreate for the protagonist of the film. With
Twilight, there may be similar difficulties.
- Lack of 'playable' events
Which brings me to my next point. While the
Twilight saga is certainly a journey for its readership, and it is definitely a good source of film material, it may not have the right sort of event progression necessary to make a good video game. I may be wrong about this, but a lot of what happens in the story is inflective and experiential.
Sure, we'd probably be pretty content being Bella and walking around Forks High School and the Cullen manor, but other than that, there aren't too many hands-on or action-oriented sequences in the story. Video game creation typically necessitates such activities.
On the other hand, other characters - especially later in the
Saga - do become involved in fighting sequences and the like, so if the main character of the game was one of the Cullens (or interchangeable with other vampires and werewolves in the
Saga), there may indeed be some source material to pull from. The problem with this scenario would be the fact that it'd involve an utter shift in perception for the entire
Saga. For those that supported the creation of
Midnight Sun, this might not be such an issue, but for others, the idea of stepping out of Bella Swan's head might not be so keen.
Still, there were many vehement doubters of
Twilight manga, and look at how well
Twilight: The Graphic Novel has done so far.
Posts
