Video Games Are The New Hollywood (UPDATED)

A still from Final Fantasy XIII (yes, this is CGI)

This week, the much awaited Final Fantasy XIII was released.  I naturally picked up a copy.  I fell in love with Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy VII, a love affair that continued with Final Fantasy X.  And, ninety minutes in, Final Fantasy XIII has me blown away.  But FFXIII is not the rare gem of a game that you get once a year.  Not anymore.

Last month saw the release of Uncharted 2, Bioshock 2, and Mass Effect 2 – each one a masterpiece in its own right.  Mass Effect 2 was rightly called “The Avatar Of Video Games” when it came out.  It has a sweeping story (which I have yet to finish), fantastic graphics, and solid acting.  And one month later, FFXIII may be called “The Avatar of Video Games”.  Not to mention the reaction expected for God of War III, coming out next week.

It’s not just the first quarter of 2010 that is seeing these games.  Alan Wake, Dead Rising 2, Dead Space 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and LA Noire (among others) are all slated for release by year’s end.  And yet the number of must-see movies worth the $12 ticket price is not as great.

Of last year’s big box-office fare – the sort of movie that you have to see in the theatre – most of the movies rounding out the top 50 were stinkers.  Yes, Avatar had fantastic visual effects; it also had terrible writing.  Following Avatar is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  And while Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (3), Up (5), The Hangover (6), Star Trek (7) and The Blind Side (8) are good movies, New Moon (4), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (9), Sherlock Holmes (10), Monsters Vs. Aliens (11), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (12), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (13), Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (14), 2012 (15), Fast and Furious (17), GI Joe: Rise of COBRA (18), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (19) are either forgettable or stinkers.

I’m not saying that there aren’t terrible video games. In fact, when films and video games collide in the form of movie games, the results are almost invariably terrible.  Nor am I saying that movies don’t drive a large part of the economy.  Indeed, Avatar to date has grossed $2.6 billion worldwide.  Side by side, the two industries are extremely competitive.  Figures released today by MPAA showed that domestic ticket sales for 2009 reached $10.6 billion.  At the same time, NPD reports that total game sales for 2009 reached $9.91 billion.

Obviously, there are naysayers who claim that it’s not a fair comparison because a video game costs $60.  But with IMAX, 3D, and Blu-Ray/DVD, the price difference is less.  And indeed, video games lead Hollywood.  I saw Avatar in 3D at the Lincoln Square IMAX here in New York City.  In order to get tickets, I had to purchase them online.  The cost of the ticket with the service fee was $18.  No popcorn.  No soda.  $18 for one movie ticket.  Had I gotten popcorn and a soda, that would raise the ticket price to $25 for three hours of visual entertainment.

By comparison, I paid $65 for Mass Effect 2, once tax is added in.  I’m ten hours in and have a long way to go.  So for three times the cost, I am getting more than three times the entertainment time.  And I get decent writing.

While the $10.6 billion for movies is just domestic box office (not worldwide) and does not account for DVD sales, the $9.91 billion in games sales does not include an additional $7.3 billion in hardware sales or the millions of dollars in smartphone games.

Where movies have seen a slow and steady decline in quality writing, video games are becoming more and more story-driven.  Heavy Rain for the PS3 has been hailed (and derided) as a new category of game – a hybrid between an interactive movie and a video game.

When I look back at the movies I’ve paid to see in the movie theatre and video games that I’ve bought, the number of games that I felt I got my money’s worth outnumbers the movies that were worth the ticket price.  I’ve played games that have had me on the edge of my seat and I’ve played games that have left me with something to think about.  I’ve even played video games that have gotten me a little misty-eyed.

If these last three months are any indication, I’m going to spend much more time with a controller in my hand than parked at the cinema.