Seeing more and more videogames being turned into Hollywood movies is not an uncommon sight in the current age. With major titles like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Prince of Persia already walking that direction, it’s only natural that more will follow. Movies based on Warcraft, Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, and more are already in development.
However, not all developing companies are comfortable with the new changes. Chief among them is Activision, whose publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg doesn’t “share that desire” of turning games into movies.
Recently speaking with EDGE on whether the Call of Duty franchise will take the same road to Hollywood, Hirshberg confirmed that not all titles need to be transferred.
“I think there’s something to do with allowing different media to do what each media does well. When I think of games as an art form, they start with being transportive. Because they’re interactive, because you are more involved in the experience than in any other form of entertainment, it all starts with being transported.”
“And obviously a natural place to want to transport people is into an experience they can’t have in their everyday lives. Sometimes that’s driving a fast car, sometimes that’s being a professional athlete, sometimes that’s being a rock star, sometimes that’s being a hero or going into a fantastical future,” he said.
He added that according to him, “this is inherently what games do best and so I’d expect that to be the basis of games for a long time to come. I don’t know if romantic comedy fits that model. I think that’s something that movies and TV do well.”
“There’s this strange desire to morph games into movies or have them behave more like movies; I don’t share that desire. Games are wonderful as they are and do different things better than other forms of media.”
Activision is currently set to release its upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts title which takes place in the near future. “Ten years after a devastating mass event, the nation's borders and the balance of global power have been redrawn forever. As what's left of the nation's Special Operations forces, a mysterious group known only as ‘Ghosts’ leads the fight back against a newly emerged, technologically-superior global power,” the official page for the game states.
Call of Duty: Ghosts is scheduled to hit PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U on Nov. 5, with the game also being a launch title for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on their respective launch dates later that month.
