Lionsgate eyes up role in games

Lionsgate is set to join the ranks of movie companies working in the games industry, by producing casual titles based on the firm’s popular TV and film IP.

The independent movie distributor is responsible for hit franchises including Crank, Rambo and Saw, and is looking to establish relationships with video game developers and publishers.

We are examining how to leverage the existing IP we have copyright over and placing it into the world of video games,” said Lionsgate’s president of digital media Curt Marvis (pictured).

I’m less convinced there is a market for console games, but one deal we’re working on involves digital casual and mobile gaming.

I think a lot of our film and television properties have the potential to reach out to the casual gaming crowd, as this is an area of gaming that is continuing to grow and grow.

We are always looking for new revenue streams, to be based on new IP we have ownership of. We are an active observer of the games business. We haven’t made any decisions as of yet, but we are keenly interested in the games space. And we look to develop more in that area as we go forward.”

Lionsgate’s popular movie horror franchise Saw is set to arrive via Konami later in the year on 360 and PS3.

However, Marvis isn’t convinced tie-in video games are always a recipe for success:

I don’t believe movie properties necessarily translate into a good game,” he said.
Gamers only care about the game, they don’t care if it’s based on a hit film or not. So console movie-based titles haven’t seen the success many people may have expected.

But I think this isn’t true of casual gamers, who are perhaps more interested in games based on movies.”