Batman Begins Spawns Game Franchise

The Batman Begins hype has already started, even though the movie isn't slated to hit the big screen until next year. Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment inked a deal to develop a series of video games – the first of which will be released in conjunction with the movie – that follows the events of the upcoming movie, according to this GamesIndustry.com story.

This, maybe moreso than other game-movie franchises, will be an interesting tale to watch unfold. EA has pinned some of its hopes on a franchise that has been less-than-stellar in its last few movie iterations. (Not that a failure would substantially hurt the gaming giant.) However, if the movie is a flop, it could hurt future sales of the game franchise.

Of course, we may find that neither property substantially affects the marketability of the other. A solid game could still sell, even if its sister property is getting panned in the press.

Maybe the most important business component, though, will be the development process between two industry heavyweights – as EA and Warner Bros. will certainly cross swords over creative control and storyline (which are movie centric) versus game play (which is game centric).