Whatchoo talkin' bout, John Riccitiello?

Lots of people are talking about Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello's comments in the Financial Times today that are pretty confident/cocky about the status of videogames as opposed to movies and TV. They're also, I think, misguided if not totally wrong:

"The buzz in Hollywood, which I heard from some Hollywood folks . . . is people are worried whether Iron Man the movie is going to get killed by Grand Theft Auto the game," says the chief executive of Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video game publisher.

"I don't think I've ever heard of that before."

The 48-year-old believes this reversal of fortunes represents a big change rather than a blip: "There is more interest today from Hollywood to make movies out of our games than there is interest in our industry to make games out of their movies. There's a big reset happening now."

As to the first statement, it's undeniably true that people in Hollywood are asking to what extent the "Grand Theft Auto IV" launch is going to impact other media, including the opening of "Iron Man." I'll be writing a story about that as part of a "GTA IV" package coming soon. If it's the first time Riccitiello has heard talk like that, though, he wasn't listening too closely when "Halo 3" came out last year during TV premiere week, to take just one other example that had people in this town buzzing.

More importantly, however, that second statement is just not supported by the facts, I think. Sure, recently we've seen  "Resident Evil," "Doom," "Silent Hill," and there are projects like "Gears of War," "World of Warcraft," and EA's own "Dead Space." And a few big games like "Bioshock" and "Assassin's Creed" are, I hear, on Hollywood's radar.

But let's compare that to just the past six months of games based on movies or TV shows... "Lost," "Jumper," "The Spiderwick Chronicles," "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "The Golden Compass," "Pirates of the Caribbean Online," "Beowulf," "Bee Movie Game," various "High School Musical" games, "The Simpsons," an endless array of "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" games... Need I go on?

Just as illustrative: This summer there will be videogames based on movies like "Prince Caspian," "Kung Fu Panda," "Speed Racer," "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Wall*E," "Space Chimps," and "Indiana Jones" (well, a Lego version of it anyway). How many movies based on video games? Ummmm... Zero.

It is true that Hollywood's becoming more and more interested in adapting videogame properties, though it has yet to do so really succesfully. But there's no evidence I can see that videogames are becoming less interested in adapting big Hollywood properties -- even at Riccitiello's own EA, home of "Lord of the Rings," "Harry Potter," "The Simpsons," and the Steven Spielberg deal.

So, something of a change in momentum? Sure. A "big reset?" I don't think so.