Money Talks: Will video games eat Hollywood?
Money Talks from The Economist
The Economist
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
Video game makers used to look to Hollywood for their inspiration. But in recent years, the market for games has grown to nearly $200bn, five times more than people spend at the box office and more, even, than they spend on streaming services like Netflix or Disney+. And that has caught the attention of the movie industry, which is now looking to game makers for its ideas.
On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird examine how gaming took over media. Bad Robot is one of the film and television production companies that has expanded into gaming. Tanya Watson, president of Bad Robot Games, explains what game makers can learn from cinematographers but also what she has to teach them. And former Spotify executive Nick Lightle discusses why it could take some time before the streamers take over gaming.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When I first got into the business, you're looking to survive. |
| 0:06.0 | There was a fight to get any content to market, to get the game to actually stand up and |
| 0:11.0 | to run. |
| 0:12.0 | Alex Hutchinson started out making video games in the early 2000s. |
| 0:17.2 | At that time, the US market was worth $10 billion, and Alex was working on a version |
| 0:23.0 | of the Sims for the Nintendo GameCube. |
| 0:28.5 | Now, the gaming market in the US is worth $100 billion, and close to $200 billion globally, |
| 0:36.3 | producing blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto, Fortnite, and Call of Duty. |
| 0:53.0 | The gaming industry has not only grown rapidly, but also changed the way it thinks about its |
| 0:59.1 | creative ambitions. |
| 1:00.9 | Alex, who co-founded his own gaming company Recune Logic, sets the bar high. |
| 1:06.8 | I always pitched the team that we're looking for an emotional hook, so now we're really |
| 1:10.8 | focused on making something great and something important and not just focused on making |
| 1:15.0 | something work. |
| 1:16.4 | As the industry ups its ambitions, actors, composers, and creative minds from Hollywood are being |
| 1:22.2 | attracted to gaming. |
| 1:24.7 | Some games are now so good that they earn their own Hollywood adaptations. |
| 1:37.5 | As an industry, gaming has often been considered a niche part of the media landscape. |
| 1:43.3 | But for consumers, it has something no other medium can offer. |
| 1:47.9 | You know, we can allow you to be an active participant in an experience not just a passive |
| 1:52.6 | observer, and I think that's something that's so monstrous and so exciting and so vast |
| 1:57.9 | that it will only grow. |
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