Licensed Games

[toxin]

Big names in the browser game now days. I found one for Fast and Furious and  Terminator Salvation
They are called fan immersion games the first on i seen was on here for Wanted
All three of them are done by the same company.

I found  Fast and Furious Here than  did a search for  fan immersion games and found  Terminator Salvation. Now this one company seams to be the only one making them.  I have seen fan made games but not licensed like the other three.
With big names to help give a game momentum it would be nice to be able to acquire  one and create a games for it.
Was wondering others thought. Would be nice to see someone from here get lucky to make a licensed game.

[Mufasa]

I've contacted an author about building a PBBG around one of his series... no response

[Harkins]

That's fascinating... I found the company you mention, StillFront. I really wonder if they're paying to license the IP or if they've managed to sell it to the studios as a marketing program and thus get to use it for free.

[Harkins]

I asked on the forums and they deleted it. Figured it was a long shot.

[codestryke]

I checked out the Wanted and Terminator games. I'de have to say they are very pretty but lack quite a bit from a 'real' game. What I was most interested in was the Wanted game as that has been though the theaters, gone to DVD and now is pretty much all but forgotten. So where did that leave the game? They didn't have any way to show number of players online but when I went to the forum it was 2 online.

These games reminded me of the late C64 games or Nintendo games towards the end of there life cycles. Seems back then any entertainment medium that was a hit soon followed with a cookie cutter game you could play at home. Course too those were single player games so it's hard to really compare. But both games I played were basically the same game, just with different graphics.

Just starting out I haven't gotten really far into either of the games but at this point they seem very single player, I don't feel a part of the world, I'm not immersed. What I also found interesting is they state in a couple places that you can create as many accounts on there games as you want. So I have to wonder, really, how much player vs player interaction they really have. If you allow someone to create any number of accounts and you have a lot of player account interaction then you are going to get a huge amount of cheaters transferring assets.

Wanted was the first one I played and I could do micro-transactions to gain some benefits in game (points I think they called them?). One cool item they had that I would like to try is they didn't send any type of verification when you signed up but once you got into the game you could get points by verifying your email. Nice way of getting them in the door fast with a signup but yet still get a valid email.

Terminator Salvation had basically the same system but they also had ways to earn points by filling out surveys etc on the web.. Stop.. hold on.. wait... Wasn't this type of system tried back in the early days of browser games. At this point the idea and company behind these games just lost a LOT favor to me. Sorry but filling out a survey etc for added in game benefits just seems cheezy by todays standards.

Anyways would I want a licensed IP? At this point it would depend on the license itself. I would want to make a game with longevity in mind. Looking at the two today it seems like it's just another arm for the marketing department of the IP itself.

[Scion]

The survey for in game (points/credits/currency) thing is on the rise again....although not as much as virtual goods.

Its really great to hear aout the email verification scheme used by wanted. I personally think its great to hear about new alternative or interesting designs that are used in differnet games.

as for the licesend games....ive never been fond of them myself....the majority seem to be rather formulaic you generally end up following the original storyline very closely.....and game play tends to be rather light.....Its something thats allways puzzled me, why dont they create games that emerse the player in the stories universe without actually replaying the original story......

eg take the Narnia books, now with movies, and closely followed by games....sure the movies are filmings of the stories, but the games just roll the player through the story again....but ive already done that several times....once each time i read the books and now again each time i watch the movies....what would be great is to have my own adventure in Narnia...sure i might run into some of the books characters....in fact id expect to....but i dont have to be one of them.....(yep i allways wished the wardrobe in my room at my gradma's house was like 'The Wardrobe' when i was a kid)

So is there an option for browser games to fill this niche? from what codestryker has reported about these IP bassed games so far it looks like its more of the same.....in fact its worse...just a change of the games skin...

[Mufasa]

as for the licesend games....ive never been fond of them myself....the majority seem to be rather formulaic you generally end up following the original storyline very closely.....and game play tends to be rather light.....Its something thats allways puzzled me, why dont they create games that emerse the player in the stories universe without actually replaying the original story......

It's about making a quick buck off an established franchise. Look at any XBOX/PS3/WII title based on a movie... they get by on the fact that it's based on the movie vs any originality in gameplay. I think in this sense, you're thinking as a gamer, and not a business-person 

[Harkins]

The survey stuff is huge, basically every large game on Facebook does it as part of their virtual currency model. There are a few companies set up now that just do these promotions, eg. "Sign up for a Discover card and get 5,000 credits" or "Get a NetFlix trial and get 400" credits. They're making it very easy to monetize games with a simple API.

[Mufasa]

I agree, survey and mobile payments are definitely in. They may be old to the old-school crowd, but PBBGs are drawing a mainstream crowd, especially at MySpace and Facebook

[Scion]

as for the licesend games....ive never been fond of them myself....the majority seem to be rather formulaic you generally end up following the original storyline very closely.....and game play tends to be rather light.....Its something thats allways puzzled me, why dont they create games that emerse the player in the stories universe without actually replaying the original story......

It's about making a quick buck off an established franchise. Look at any XBOX/PS3/WII title based on a movie... they get by on the fact that it's based on the movie vs any originality in gameplay. I think in this sense, you're thinking as a gamer, and not a business-person 

Its just that i dont recall any game bassed on an existing franchise that breaks this mold.... your right though as a gamer id love to be able to emerse myself into some of my favorite book / game universes....hell im in a niche,....wheres my provider....oh thats right niche providers generally dont have the funds to fork up for IP rights....and if you have forked up for IP rights...youll be needing to be baking after a tried and true recipe.....