INTERVIEW: Lionsgate

But the recession-beating growth of gaming has bought about a new bond between the two industries. Once merely the IP holders, film studios are quickly becoming content producers in their own right. And alongside the headline-hitting games industry entries from the likes of Warner Bros and Paramount, some of cinema’s behind-the-scenes giants are also looking for a piece of the pie.

CasualGaming.biz was lucky enough o catch up with Lionsgate’s president of digital media Curt Mavis to discuss its casual intentions:

CG.biz: What is Lionsgate’s current strategy in video games?

CM: There are two different things that we are looking for. The more developed area is selling our movies and TV shows through the connected game consoles. Xbox Live has been showing movies for sometime now and PS3 has really grown over the last year.



As for Wii, I imagine the Wii’s movie store will launch worldwide soon. The essential point is that the game machine is already connected into the TV, and we see it as a major conduit inside the home to bring movies via the internet into the television. Our horror and action movies are ideal for the Xbox and PlayStation’s hardcore audience, while the broader audience of the Wii are likely to enjoy our more mass-market properties.



The second thing we’re looking at is how we can leverage our existing intellectual properties we have copyright ownership over and transferring them to the world of games. I’m less convinced there is a market there for console gaming, but we are starting to explore, and I hope to close a deal soon, the area of casual gaming and mobile phone games.

I think a lot of our film and TV properties have potential tremendous saleability and interest to be generated with the casual gaming crowd. That seems to be a marketplace that continues to grow and grow. So we are seriously looking at the casual and mobile gaming areas.



CG.biz: Are you looking to work directly with studios, or develop relationships with publisher?



CM: At this point we are not publishing games ourselves. We’ve looked at that and it’s not something on the immediate horizon. In most discussions we’re having at the moment depends on the company. Some of the companies want to create the games and be the publishers, and we’ve had some developers want to create the games and use another company as the publisher. We’ve not put anything into motion just yet, but looking at what makes the most sense for us.

CG.biz: Will these be purely digital casual titles, or is retail boxed copies a part of that too?



CM: These will be just digital casual games. So this will be the model used on Real Networks or on the major casual gaming sites. Here in the US, we offer X amount of gameplay time for free, and then you’re upsold to purchase the rest of the game if you are in to it. And we will probably adopt that model as well.



CG.biz: Why do you feel movie games are better suited to casual games?



CM: I don’t believe that movie properties have translated well into hit games. My 14-year-old son is a hardcore gamer, he and his friends only care about the game, they won’t be attracted to a game because it is based on a hit movie. It is only about if it is a good game or not. And I feel that is true of most gamers.

I think the console game world has not seen the level of success that has been expected of movie-based titles. An area that is more suitable for movies is casual gaming. Being involved with the movie or TV world might have more appear to the casual gamer, and be more important to them than the hardcore gamer.



CG.biz: So would you be interested in doing original casual games, or is it just titles based on your existing IP?

CM: We have not looked at original casual games as of yet. But we may look at it down the road when we learn more about the business itself.



CG.biz: You talk about how some movie games struggle, but we have seen a lot of film companies make the transition to games. Of course there’s been Disney and Warner, while more recently we’ve had Paramount. Why do you feel film companies are so keen on gaming?



CM: Our modern world is all about extending a brand to as many areas as we can. So when you have these huge movies that have such high marketing, production and distribution spend against them, you want to have everything from hats, t-shirts and figures to go with it, and console games are natural extension of that.

Movie studios, including Lionsgate, are always looking for ancillary marketplaces where we can drive additional revenue from. The games business is a large business, and has many similarities, it's not identical in any ways, but certainly from the distribution point-of-view it is similar. So there is a general interest from studios to extend these well-known brands, in our case Saw, or tent pole big releases, as a way to gain additional revenue. It’s almost like putting out soundtracks.

CG.biz: As well as Saw, you have plenty of big name movie properties such as Crank, that are well suited to video games. Are you actively seeking to licence these properties out?

CM: We are always looking at new revenue streams. What I would say is that we are an active observer of the games business. We haven’t made any decisions as of yet to our exact approach, but we are keenly interest in the games space and look to develop that moving forward.



CG.biz: You specialise in digital content. How has the digital market for films expanded over the past 12 months?

CM: It continues to grow at a rapid space. We are seeing triple-digit growth. As more and more devices hit the marketplace that make it easier for consumers to take internet content into the living room, then we can expect it to keep on growing.



The game devices of the PS3 and Xbox are perfect examples of devices that help us sell movies that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.



CG.biz: Do you see a time when digital will be your focus over retail releases?

CM: The death of the retail business has been talked about for 10-15 years now. We are a big believer in digital, and we expect it to continue to grow rapidly. But we see it as an extension of our overall home entertainment business. We see DVD and Blu-Ray as the area that will generate the most money for some time to come.

CG.biz: And what about in games. Do you feel games will always need retail?

CM: I’m not so familiar on the games business. We know there’s a lot of digital games already. However, I believe the retail business will still be here for some time.



CG.biz: You likened making a game to creating a movie. Is this why you guys are reluctant to make big budget games, and instead focussing on the casual route?

CM: What I meant by that, is that producing a movie takes years from the point a script is written, to the production, casting, and marketing of a movie. And tens of millions of dollars are riding on that particulary project.



The games business has become quite like that. It is now very hit driven. Production budgets have gone up dramatically, while development schedules have become quite lengthy. It is an entertainment business that we as an entertainment company has an obligation to look at to see if there is a place for us to play. Be it via licensing or developing projects ourselves.