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[Victor Omega]

Gaming has motion capture, voice talent, and arguably the best storyteller in any media today. Yet they go to these Big name studios to make live-action adaptions of their IPs only to see them not appeal to the audience that helps build them.

Furthermore, there is an all too common form of gaming advertisement that has always been around, one, for better or worst, captures the game closer than any live-action film, CGI Trailers. Why have we not seen more animated video game films? Why haven't we seen a more expansive range of styles of films or video games?

Im just gonna throw some trailers of past films that show that gaming can produce non-live-action films that stay closer to the source material than any live-action film would.


Motion Capture CGI






Fully animated




----

Here are some Game trailers I feel, if expanded upon, could make for a feature film rather than just a trailer."

 

[CuNi]

I already asked myself this very question when I saw the Blizzard WoW Cinematics drop every 2 years with how incredible they looked, and then they did the Movie and put in Humans again, and I just accepted that in whatever board-meeting those things get decided on, there will always be that one guy that still communicates by smoke signs and will argue about "traditional movie experiences" or some other bullshit to stop full-blown out GCI Movies from happening.

 

[mortal]

Most CGI trailers are often outsourced outside the game studio. In fact, many of the CGI trailers examples in your OP are done by visual effects studios that do work in the film industry.

 

[AV]

Most CGI trailers are often outsourced outside the game studio. In fact, many of the CGI trailers examples in your OP are done by visual effects studios that do work in the film industry.

It's this.

And these adaptations aren't targeting the same audiences most of the time. I don't know a single Uncharted fan who went to see the movie because, why bother? Just play any Uncharted game, it's better. But for people who have no interest in playing a 12 hour video game, a 2 hour action movie with Spider-Man and Marky Mark sounds like fun.

 

[Strider Highwind]

lol

 

[remember_spinal]

normies don’t wanna watch cartoons.

Squaresoft already proved this with spirits within

 

[Wandering Leopard]

Isn't it obvious why, film/tv is an entirely different medium which means it requires different expertise; although Hollywood has been going down hill for a while.

Update: but it's possible the film/TV industry needs 'external' talent who can inject new/different ideas.

 

[KXVXII9X]

I have thought this for a long time, especially after being mesmerized by Final Fantasy cutscenes and some movies they had. Same with a lot of CG trailers and cinematic games. It seems like they have the tech and capabilities, and it would make sense at least for bigger studios. It would be great marketing material. Arcane and the new Cyberpunk Edgerunners seemed to be massive successes. Something like The Uncharted movie seems redundant since the games were already very cinematic and had more time to flesh out a gripping story where you had some control over. TLOU is my favorite game, but not sure how I will enjoy the HBO show. I think what makes those games stand out are how well they blend their narratives with gameplay and how it puts you into the experience.

I'm excited to see the Mario Movie trailer later today and I hear a Gravity Rush movie is in the works. I hope it uses a similar style like the game because it is gorgeous.

 

[theStartupSound]

Gaming has motion capture, voice talent, and arguably the best storyteller in any media today.

While I also don’t like what the film industry does with gaming franchises, I strongly disagree that gaming has skills in story telling anywhere near “best in any media”. We applaud games for having a good story or dialogues which we would rate as b movies as best when it would be a movie or show. I have never seen anything remotely close to Breaking Bad, Sopranos or Fargo in terms of writing in any game

 

[Oof85]

Because what works in games oftentimes doesn't work in film.

Like I watched that FF clip you posted and I saw airships, people in medievalesque armor fighting in what appears to be the Tokyo city strip.

Swords and dragons sharing a world with skyscrapers and etc.

In games beautiful mishmash of nonsense can be tolerated but in film? That ish has to be worked into an actual narrative that people can and want to follow.

So they turn it over to people who do so for a living. Because game studios have been corrupted by continual exposure to beautiful nonsense.

 

[jigglet]

Movies aren’t just about the visuals.

The story telling, scripting and acting in 80% of what you posted would be unwatchable for 120 minutes.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Gamers are the most out of touch people about everything.

Literally everything you said was incorrect. Most games studios output horrible writing and cinematography. General audiences don’t wanna see animated adult movies.

 

[Black_Stride]

Ive always though a videogame adaption that CGI would likely be more faithful to the source material.
But probably costs alot to get done, and wider audiences might not want to see a CGI movie that isnt "pixar style".


hopefully with UE5 we see people make a feature length movie in it:

↓ Unreal Engine 5 ↓

 

[midnightAI]

It's this.

And these adaptations aren't targeting the same audiences most of the time. I don't know a single Uncharted fan who went to see the movie because, why bother? Just play any Uncharted game, it's better. But for people who have no interest in playing a 12 hour video game, a 2 hour action movie with Spider-Man and Marky Mark sounds like fun.

I'm a fan of the Uncharted games and I went to see the movie, it was fun. There, now you know someone who is a fan and saw the movie.

 

[AV]

I'm a fan of the Uncharted games and I went to see the movie, it was fun. There, now you know someone who is a fan and saw the movie.

Fine, but you know what I mean. I would bet the majority of those ticket sales came from people who have never played an Uncharted game, I'd also bet lots of them didn't even know it was a video game in the first place.

 

[Three]

I already asked myself this very question when I saw the Blizzard WoW Cinematics drop every 2 years with how incredible they looked, and then they did the Movie and put in Humans again, and I just accepted that in whatever board-meeting those things get decided on, there will always be that one guy that still communicates by smoke signs and will argue about "traditional movie experiences" or some other bullshit to stop full-blown out GCI Movies from happening.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within really scared Hollywood.

 

[SmokedMeat]

They want to attract a large audience, not a few nerds.

 

[Skifi28]

 

[Old_and_Slow]

While it looks cool cgi stuff is soulless (no pun intended). People cannot relate to who is on the screen because there is no one on the screen. It's the same reason some of the green screen extravaganza's from the last few years have not been so successful- the people getting a back seat to effects makes for a bad film. While something like Avatar did well, it still had plenty of real actors doing things. Some iffy cgi moments and uncanny valley going on in Avatar (and not in a good way) but viewers went with it. If graphics makers want to take over film then their technology and nuance in artistry needs to improve by an order of magnitude. Until then no one is paying movie ticket money for what amounts to a video game cut scene.

 

[Pelta88]

OP thinks that the CG trailers are made by devs and not animation studios?

Here's the animation studio behind the CG trailer for Fable

Fable Legends

Will you choose Hero or Villain?

axisstudiosgroup.com

When the actual gameplay releases some call it a "Downgrade." Not realizing the CG trailer they watched earlier had nothing to do with the studio developing the game.

Ubisoft is the animation studios #1 client.

 

[AV]

Thanks phil_t98 .

 

[Salty Popsicle]

I always wanted a big-budget Halo movie with the visuals from the "Starry Night" trailer.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I agree.

I love fully C.G. movies.... much more than the [over]use of C.G. in movies filmed with live actors.

VG movies as fully CG movies just makes so much more sense.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I always wanted a big-budget Halo movie with the visuals from the "Starry Night" trailer.

Yes!

.... just not by the recent Halo showrunners. Or anyone at the current MS; since none of em seem to understand what made the original Halo series so compelling.

 

[LordBlodgett]

The first two CGI trailers in your post, advent children and Kingslaive were movies, and both failed miserably (though Advent Children to a much lesser degree because it was direct to DVD and made for video game fans). Then there was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, with a huge budget and tons of talent, completely bombing. The fact is there aren't enough gamers (even for a franchise as big as Final Fantasy) to rely exclusively on them to show up for your film. You need to make a movie that can stand on its own two feet. What this often means is recognizable names doing cool stuff that can be put in a trailer. It is easier to get a star and fit them into a movie based on a video game than to try to make your own digital stars. The other side of things is that what makes a game great may not easily translate to a movie. While a simple puzzle action platform style game with a hot lead (Tomb Raider) might easily fit a 90 minute Hollywood script, something like RDR1 or RDR2 has too much exposition to easily make a short movie about. Making brand new stories, with no name recognition, no branding, and an all CGI cast is doomed to fail as well because high quality CGI is expensive as hell. Why not bet on the sure thing?

 

[RoadHazard]

Most CGI trailers are often outsourced outside the game studio. In fact, many of the CGI trailers examples in your OP are done by visual effects studios that do work in the film industry.

Exactly.

 

[LordBlodgett]

I also want to add, after watching a lot of these trailers, that they work as trailers, but not as movies. The uncanny valley is real, and to get us pumped for great graphics in games these work great, but none compare to reality as well as real people with some CGI settings

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I don't see the point in watching the last of us TV show when I already played the game and know the story.


Come up with something original Hollywood.

 

[ACESHIGH]

The gaming industry still has this inferiority complex vs the movie industry as if we were in the 80s or 90s

 

[Trogdor1123]

these skills don’t overlap as much as you think…