Beware movie-makers: games might start stealing your thunder

Most gamers are justifiably excited about the soon-to-be-released Grand Theft Auto IV; many of those same individuals are probably at least somewhat interested in the comic-book-story-turned-film Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. However, some people think that the popularity of Grand Theft Auto might push Iron Man from the debut limelight, as both are slated for release during the same week.

Though the release of Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29 and Iron Man on May 2 might seem like an overdose of goodness to young men across America, one analyst from NextGen predicts doom for Iron Man box office sales. Kris Graft seems sure that the new game will steal the affections and attentions of many of the individuals who would be going to see Iron Man, if it weren’t for the GTA IV release.

When Halo 3 was released, Hollywood produced griped that normal movie-goers were holed up in their cribs blasting away at the Flood and Brutes instead of filling theater seats. This sounds vaguely familiar to the allegation that normal cinema fans have stopped going to theaters because everyone is choosing to pirate new movies.

With that in mind, I sincerely doubt that movie sales will hurt because of the release of a single video game. Sure, people are going to have their games and spend far too much time jacking cars and propositioning hookers, but movies are movies.

Or are they? After all, video games pose the real threat of interactive entertainment compared to the force-fed and structured entertainment of a movie. The allure of role-playing games is that players can create and live their own stories. Anyone remember “choose your own ending” books?

Hollywood producers need to stop blaming piracy and games for poor sales; at the very least, accept that video games are evolving and commanding the attention of a larger group of people. That probably isn’t going to diminish any time soon, so move on and start making movies that people can’t help but go experience in the theater. Maybe then game developers will stop making horribly adapted movie-based video games.

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• GTA IV expected to rake in $400 million opening weekend between Xbox 360, PS3
• GTA 4 sells 6 million copies in first week – Will PS3, Xbox 360 sales spike?