Universal gets into games with Wanted, Paramount making Pretty in Pink videogame

Two big stories about movie studios publishing videogames in today's Daily Variety...

First, Universal is the latest to get into the biz. Apparently I was out of the loop last week and several other news outlets saw a preview of an upcoming game based on the Universal movie "Wanted" that was shown at E3 last week. Not only did I miss that one, but I didn't know it existed.

However, I did some reporting today and found out... It's the first videogame that Universal is self-financing and producing (at least since it had Universal Interactive back in the '90s, which eventually got folded into Vivendi Games when Vivendi bought Universal). I spoke to Bill Kispert, head of Universal's videogame business, and he said the studio is selectively starting to invest in its own games both to get a foothold in the business and get production started sooner so it doesn't have to wait the several months to make a licensing deal (those can be several important months when you're on the already tight schedule of a movie license).

For full details on the "Wanted" game and Universal's approach to videogames, read the story in Daily Variety.

For those keeping count at home, that makes Universal the fourth movie studio spending money on games (either internally or through a sibling business unit), along with Disney, Warner Bros., and Paramount.

Particularly interesting is that Warner Bros. is handling worldwide publishing for Universal. I think that marks the first time that one movie studio has ever published a videogame for another. I'm sure we'll see more of that going forward, just as studios work together on films all the time.

Of course, all the studios have a different approach. Universal is spending tens of millions on a AAA console title for PC, PS3 and 360. Paramount, on the other hand, is starting off small, co-publishing casual titles based on some of its library properties.

Today we have details on Paramount's first three games: Clueless, Mean Girls, and Pretty in Pink. Probably not the most obvious videogames that ever popped into your head, but in the world of casual titles, they make a lot of sense. Personally, I'm hoping to get the chance to play as Ducky. That poor guy deserves to finally kick some ass.

Paramount is co-publishing its first few games with Legacy Interactive. And it has several more in the works for this year and even more on the slate for next year.

Just as with the other story, you can get the full details in my Daily Variety article.