What Hollywood Could Learn From the Gaming Industry

GameDaily's David Radd has up a piece today looking at what Hollywood could learn from the games industry. His main points are that game companies are much more in touch with their customers, do a better job of generating buzz, and utilize the internet as a communications medium more successfully. From the article: "Today, publishers like Activision report that their ad budgets are equal to their game production budgets. But despite this significant increase in the scope of video game advertising, the 'buzz' factor is all important. And with the Internet, viral advertising has a way to touch both groups."

Oh bother.

[9mm Censor]

I cant wait till Hollywood learns to charge more for shorter films with better special effects, with less content, and more sequels.

Run by old guys...

[Manip]

I don't want to be overly simplistic, but I believe the problem stems from the fact that the movie industry is run by a bunch of 50+ old guys that still think it is 1970, and things work the same way that they did then. Unlike the game industry who's average age is lower than 30... They are in fact their own customers...

It remains to be seem how well they will keep in touch with their customers as the industry ages, but that is neither here nor there.

The music industry changed, but kicking and screaming, they ended up loosing billions because of their inability to change to the new climate. The movie industry still is loosing billions but they aren't ready to change... It's hard to tell if its arrogant, stupidity, or something in the middle of the two.

I think mail order DVDs should be a very clear indication of just how big Internet movie rental and or purchase markets are... It's clearly what the consumer wants... I say they should fire off these old middle managers and hire in some fresh blood...

No way

[hawkbug]

I strongly disagree - the games industry seems to think they can require an internet connection along iwth insanely over-reaching DRM to play their stuff. There is not a chance in hell that I will ever use a STEAM-based system to play games, so that rules out all Valve options.

Games give more.

[Rachel Lucid]

It also helps that we get 20-60 hours of content for each purchase, compared to the 2-3 hours Hollywood gives us. Throw in a Wiki for the movies every now and then, will you?

Ad budgets in line with production budgets?

[thaerin]

Today, publishers like Activision report that their ad budgets are equal to their game production budgets.

And as such we have been able to bear witness to the rise of poorly released (i.e. bugs) titles that never see any worthwhile patches because the company is already working on their next over-hyped hit. Under this budget scheme, is it any wonder then that titles such as Call of Duty 2 are full of so many bugs and hacks? I can't recall seeing very many ads for the game, guess they must of been paying the devs in peanuts.

Re:No way

[hawkbug]

The fact that it is required to play games you purchase. Requiring an internet connection to play single player FPS game is just stupid and a sad attempt at over-reaching copy right protection and anti-piracy measures. Soon, we'll see hollywood do the same thing. No thank you.

Whom Hollywood really needs to learn from...

[TemporalBeing]

...the Anime industry...duh...

The Anime people use "piracy" to their advantage - you do not seem a lot of marketting for Anime, with the exception of a few places, but those few places are based solely around anime (e.g. Anime Network, Cartoon Network, etc.).

The Anime people rely on customers to do grown-swell marketing for their products, and they respond to the customers. More and more I find myself disliking the movies from Hollywood - okay, they've had a couple good ones lately, but that's out of a ton of bad ones over the last few years - and more in tune with Anime. And guess what I'm generally buying when it comes to DVD's? Anime; entire series introduced by friends and content that Hollywood would likely have deemed "piracy".

And the fans generally respect the companies and get rid of the "piracy" as content becomes available in their own languages and regions. It's a win-win situation.

Now if only Hollywood would learn...

Re:Oh bother.

[twistedsymphony]

Well, you might be joking but there ARE things the game industry could learn from the movie industry. For instance the movie industry has a pretty decent indy crowd, and a lot of times that's encouraged (where a lot of time it's shunned in the game industry, particularly on the console side). They also have a good balance between meaningful fresh and unique films and generic "give them what sells" stuff. I think the key is that they have worthwhile awards/awards shows and know how to promote the people behind the film. Writers, directors, producers, staring actors, supporting actors, score composer etc. ALL get a spotlight not just in the awards shows but also on the movie posters, in advertisements, and on the DVD box. Sure there are SOME "superstars" in the game business but it's not too frequent and it's not leveraged in the same way they do it in the film industry.

Any good business will learn from others, what works well, what doesn't, etc.. this applies to individual companies as well as entire industries.

It's the other way around...

[__aaclcg7560]

I thought it was all the video game companies (at least, the big ones) were flocking to Hollywood to grab the latest license? I get a daily email from http://www.gamejobs.com/ [gamejobs.com] listing most new jobs in Southern California. I don't see any big name Hollywood studios flocking to Texas to get cozy with http://www.idsoftware.com/ [idsoftware.com].

WHAT?!?

[Il128]

When's the last time a game made $600,779,824 or even $100,003,492 [imdb.com]? Movies learn from computer games? LOL,sometimes people try to hard to prove how smart the computer guys are compared to everyone else! This is one of those times.