Games based on films may lose steam

GAMING: Some producers still feel it is a good marketing tool.

Launching a game based on a movie alongside its release is becoming a trend in Bollywood, the recent films Ghajini and Dev D being cases in point.

Indiagames.com recently launched a game on Dev D, a UTV Motion Pictures film. Says Shikha Kapur, VP (marketing), UTV Motion Pictures, “Games get us revenue in terms of selling rights. Moreover, it is a great marketing tool. Games also help in creating a buzz around the movie as they are interactive and viral in nature.” Producers also benefit from movie-games in terms of joint promotions and free movie merchandising.

Arun Mehra, chief marketing officer, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, says: “Music has given way to gaming for movie marketing as the youth today is more passionate about gaming. In some cases, games outdo even DVD and theatrical sales. So, most producers are launching games around their movies.”

While producers are increasingly adopting this trend, gaming companies are not necessarily gung-ho about it. Alok Kejriwal, founder and CEO, Games2win, says: “It doesn’t work. As movies don’t do justice to books, so don’t games. A movie is best watched on large screen. It’s very difficult to replicate a movie in a game.”

In most cases, a game gets launched after the release of the movie, but then the game goes in the background. “Making a game on a movie is a gamble. Producers ask money upfront and depending on the banner, it can be anywhere between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. No one can be sure how the movie is going to do. If the movie bombs, the game gets no players,” rues Kejriwal. “As a movie loses steam at the box office, the game also goes off. Every week we have three-four movie releases. How do you expect people to remember the game after a week?”

He also adds that if one looks globally, this concept hasn’t really worked. In fact, there’s a reverse trend in Hollywood, where games have inspired movies. The Tomb Raider being a case in point, where a movie was made based on this game, starring Angelina Jolie.

Mehra, though, rates games based on movies as success stories. “In some cases, movie-games get more players than ordinary games,” he says. Recently, Zapak launched a game on Luck By Chance. Mehra buttresses his claim by saying that in less than four weeks of the launch, two million people have played the game.

Sashi Reddi, founder, chairman and CEO of FXLabs, cites a different reason to make a game on a movie: “It does reach out to all the crazy movie fans. If you see for Ghajini, one of our main objectives was to introduce the gaming culture to a new set of audience. We see Bollywood games as a perfect tool to increase the gaming culture in India.” Reddi predicts that in five years, revenues from Bollywood games will be around Rs 2,500 crore.