The Movie Industry Vs. the Gaming Industry

You may be surprised to learn that the video game industry almost raked in as much cash as the movie industry last year. In fact, the gaming industry is growing faster than the movie industry. So which big time entertainment industry is better at entertaining the consumers? Let's compare several aspects.

Value
It cost approximately $10 to watch a movie in theaters and about $20 to buy a DVD movie. The average length of a fully featured movie is about 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Handheld games are usually around $30-$40 while console games can retail from $50-$60. The average length varies greatly for videogames; in general, anything less than 6 hours is considered to be short.

The biggest advantage for video games is the replay value. Movies are the same whether if you are watching them for the first time or the fifth. Since you control what is going on the television screen, you can play a video game in different ways. In other words, you won't get the same exact experience when replaying a videogame as you would when watching a movie.

Cost
The biggest blockbuster movies cost hundreds of millions to make. Spider Man 3 one of the (if not the) most expensive films needed around $250 million to create.

Blockbuster videogames, on the other hand, only requires a fraction of the costs at tens of millions. The most costly game by a wide margin is Grand Theft Auto IV, which required around $100 million.

Narrative vs. Interactivity
While it certainly has its ups and downs, movies are made to tell a story. The actors, musical scores and camera shots are made to convey and express the script. Fact is, movies are often critiqued for their plots above any other film element.

The same couldn't be said about videogames. Game developers always put the gameplay department out first before committing to any other elements. No one will want to play a game for the story if the gameplay is awful. Bad plots in videogames rarely ruin the overall experience.

Video games do have the advantage when it comes to interactivity. While movies only require the audience to watch, video games ask the audience to participate on what is happening on the screen.

Video Games Licensed Movies vs. Movie Licensed Video Games
Finally, let's look at what happen when the movie and video game industry cross over. The results are pretty underwhelming: video games licensed movies (Doom, Tomb Raider and Resident Evil) and movie licensed video games (E.T., Wall-E and Enter the Matrix) are equally bad.
This is because video games licensed movies are based on the storyline of video games, which usually never translate well onto the silver screen. On the other hand, movie licensed video games are usually rushed and sloppily put together in order to release the game at the same time the movie is opening.

Although movies and video games can certainly co-exist, uniting both industries can result in some pretty bad products.