Epic Games, the developer behind the Unreal series and Gears of War, is currently in talks with film financier Legendary Pictures about a possible acquisition. The pair bonded over the upcoming Gears of War big screen adaptation, and now Legendary seems interested in taking on a more dominant role in the relationship.
This is one of the more significant, high profile examples of how Hollywood is eyeing the games industry with its greedy eyes.
Epic might be best known for its Gears of War and Unreal titles, it also runs a very lucrative business in licensing the Unreal Engine 3.0 graphics engine out to other developers.
Games like Mass Effect, BioShock, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas and Stranglehold have all used the technology to power the games, meaning Epic gets a steady stream of cash even when it’s not pumping out monster hits like Gears of War.
For that reason, Epic is likely to put a very high price tag on itself and we’ll just have to wait and see whether private equity-backed Legendary will bite.
With game developers already feeling that the spiralling costs of making blockbuster game are getting out of hand and a becoming a big deterrent to anyone trying to break into the biz for the first time, it’s hard to see Hollywood’s growing attention as a good thing. But if that’s the way things are going anyway, developers and publishers are going to have to come up with the money somewhere and maybe Hollywood’s deep pockets are a good start.
Frankly though, after having a quick glance at the pathetic crap that makes up the film charts each week, I won’t ever see Hollywood’s involvement as a good thing. Just look at any movie adaptation of a game, or vice versa, as a perfect example of why the two industries are almost entirely incompatible. If you’re already sick of the fact that 99% of games might as well be called Generic Space Marine Saves Mankind, then unfortunately Hollywood’s involvement isn’t going to make things better.
Epic: for gamers’ sakes, stay strong.This deal would be neither epic nor legendary.
(via Variety)
