April 2 2:49 P.M.
Hardly any big-budget movie goes by these days without an accompanying video game release -- but the absence of a game based on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight property is causing publishers to miss out on millions, according to British trade paper MCV.
"Given how hot a property it is, Twilight could easily present a seven-figure exploitation opportunity," analyst Nick Gibson told the publication, "especially if publishers look at taking it beyond retail gaming and considers network gaming."
Gibson goes on to suggest such a game would perform well with the broader audiences of the Nintendo's Wii and DS machines, and would be unlikely to be targeted at gamers with Xbox 360s or PS3s.
"The brand’s appeal could actually extend significantly beyond the expected teen girl market and into the 20- to 30-year-old female market, which has a very substantial crossover into gaming," he said.
So why have we not seen any serious attempt to bring Twilight's vampires-and-werewolves world to consoles? It could simply be that the franchise owners haven't realized what a big money-spinner it could be, Gibson told MCV.
"It may well be that the rights holders aren’t aware of the potential benefits as they haven’t explored the games market before,” he said. "It’s not unheard of – although it is increasingly unusual in this day and age."
Movie-based games often score poorly with critics, but they're a reliable hit with consumers. All the same, Twilight isn't the only recent hot property to have missed out on a video game release: you'd have thought a game based on Oscar-winning Batman flick The Dark Knight would have been an obvious move, but it was not to be. Although publisher EA was working on such a title, it was canceled in 2008; a Newsweek article put the cost of the missed opportunity at over $100 million.
Would you play a video game based on the Twilight movie or novels? Let us know in the comments.
I don't play video games, so I don't know what's out there game-wise. But had pretty much assumed there were Twi-games out there. Guess I learned something new today.
What do you think would be a good 'plot' for a Twilight game? Collect as many copies of BD as you can, rip them up, and burn them in an allotted time frame? See how many half naked wolf boys you can take out as Victoria? Follow Bella's character around, and for every time she trips and falls that you don't catch her, you lose points?