Warner Bros. pushing Lego Batman like a movie

One of the advantages of being part of a major media conglomerate is the ability to put on a huge marketing push in multiple media with relative ease.

That's what Warner Bros. has done for "Lego Batman," as Variety reporter Marc Graser details in this story. There's a tie-in to an animated "Justice League" DVD, a DC Comic, ads on Cartoon Network and KidsWB.com, trailers on Warner  Bros. DVDs, and even a toy tie-in at McDonalds.

Warner Bros. of course has a good relationship with McDonalds for Happy Meal toys. But when was the last time you saw a videogame company score a tie-in with McDonalds? I don't remember one.

"There are tentpole films and we're trying to create tentpole games," Warner Bros. Interactive president Martin Tremblay told Marc.

As more and more traditional media congloms get into videogames (Warner Bros. and Disney have big operations, Universal and Paramount are just getting started), these multi-media promotional blitzes are a big advantage they have over traditional publishers, which do videogames and not much else.

Consider, for example, the partnerships EA has had to make just to get a "Dead Space" comic and animated direct-to-DVD movie. That's the kind of thing Warner Bros. or Disney can do with ease.

Of course, it's a bit easy to do this with "Lego Batman," since the caped crusader is a known quantity in every corner of the Time Warner world. It'll be really interesting to see if Warner Bros. Interactive can produce equal excitement with its corporate siblings for a more hardcore title like February's "F.E.A.R. 2."

You can get all the details on the "Lego Batman" marketing assault in Marc's story here.

Related: Lego Batman review