{"id":2455,"date":"2012-04-20T13:57:17","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T19:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2012-04-20T13:57:17","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T19:57:17","slug":"how-microsoft-killed-halo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2455","title":{"rendered":"How Microsoft Killed Halo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIt was, almost literally, the video game industry invading Hollywood. Microsoft sent a legion of actors decked out in Spartan armor from the Halo series to top studio executives around Hollywood. They strode through security without saying a word, and delivered copies of the Halo script with a letter from the company regarding terms. It was like Microsoft was saying: \u201cmake this movie or we\u2019ll laser you in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an excerpt from \u201cGeneration Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood\u201d published on Wired, Jamie Russell explains just how thoroughly Microsoft torpedoed its own chances of ever getting a Halo movie made. The mojo was there \u2013 Master chief and Halo were as recognizable as any action hero. But Microsoft just didn\u2019t get Hollywood. Execs walked into negotiations assuming they could dictate the way they would go, and walked away with nothing. Writes Russell:<\/p>\n

Games creators are, by their nature, engineers who deal in absolutes. For them the subtleties of Hollywood production, with its ebb-and-flow of egos and power plays, were often alien. \u201cTo sell a movie into a studio and actually get it made is a lot of work,\u201d he says. \u201cIt takes a lot of conversations and a lot of pixie dust being thrown about while you\u2019re getting the deals done. In the games industry, they\u2019re technologists and they\u2019re data driven. They\u2019re looking at data points and saying: \u2018We need the movie to be made, it\u2019s got to be this, this and this. If you get A, B and C to be part of the movie, then great we\u2019ll sell you the rights.\u2019 You can\u2019t do that.\u201d But, if that\u2019s what Microsoft wanted, CAA was willing to try.<\/p>\n

The videogame industry\u2019s fixation on turning popular franchises into movies is part of an inferiority complex endemic throughout the AAA gaming community. \u201cJust like a Hollywood movie\u201d feels like the highest praise, for a whole set of games, and when a game gets turned into a movie, it feels like the ultimate validation. When a movie gets turned into a game, it feels like a cheap cop-out.<\/p>\n

The games community needs to relax. They make more money than movies. They have indie art projects just like movies, and they have blockbuster popcorn just like movies. Games have spent years as the black sheep of the entertainment industry, but now they\u2019re like a prizefighter that still harbors his childhood insecurities from being beat up on the playground.