It’s Time To Revive The Lost Movie Tie-In Games Of The PS2 Era

Following the announcement that Nightdive Studios is remastering the 2002 game The Thing, which was based in the world of John Carpenter’s horror movie of the same name, could it be time to revisit some of the other movie tie-ins of the PlayStation 2 era? Up until the 2010s, movie tie-in games were regularly pumped out by studios looking to capitalize on a popular blockbuster’s release, with practically every major cinematic franchise being represented in some capacity, and while these often varied in quality, there were some diamonds among all the rubbish.

The PlayStation 2 era – which already has one of the most impressive game catalogs across the different console generations – had some particularly good movie tie-ins to match some of the epic franchises hitting cinemas at the time. These included the likes of 2002’s TheLord of the Rings: The Two Towers and 2003’s Return of the King, 2004’s Spider-Man 2, some of the earlier Harry Potter titles, and Peter Jackson’s King Kong, the latter of which combined intense first-person shooter action for the human characters with third-person brawler gameplay that let players take control of Kong himself to tell both sides of the story.

Why Did Movie Tie-In Games Die Out?

Tie-In Games Often Had A Shorter Development Time Compared To Movies

Movie tie-ins varied in quality, often due to just how rushed the developers were to meet the movie’s release date. While some studios were given an insight into the movie’s story very early on due to early copies of the script or concepts – or, in the case of tie-ins for movies that were adapting novels, could reference the source material – others were pushed into rushing out a title as something of an afterthought, which led to some bizarre tie-ins for movies that didn’t really need them.

This was evident even in the earlier days of game development when it didn’t take quite as long to produce games, but anyone who has been following the industry in recent years can see just how much development windows have increased for AAA titles, with some games taking anywhere between 5 and 10 years to make. This wouldn’t fit in with the kind of production schedule for most blockbuster films, even if a game developer were to be involved in the early stages of production, so the kinds of tie-ins became more about tying into a franchise and expanding its world rather than adapting a movie’s story to meet its release date directly, much like 2023’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which released a year after the movie The Way of Water and could still capitalize on its success, but told its own story that allowed players to explore a virtual Pandora instead.

In some cases where a sequel was practically guaranteed, such as Lord of the Rings, where the trilogy was shot back-to-back, developers could have more time to plan ahead for future titles. In the case of the Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in, the physics-based swinging mechanics the game was so heavily praised for were conceptualized by a developer while working on the movie tie-in for the first Spider-Man movie, giving the sequel a head start that certainly paid off.

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Movie Tie-In Games Could Be A Fun Way To Relive A Movie

Especially When The Wait For A Home Release Was Longer

Currently, with streaming services and the option to digitally rent a movie closing the gap between a cinematic release and a home release of a movie, audiences may not even have to wait much longer than a month before they can experience a film again in the comfort of their own home, but in the days of the PS2-era, the wait for a DVD release of a film could be several months to almost a year later depending on region. Therefore, companies used tie-in games, official novelizations, and comic books to give audiences a way to relive the film while waiting for the home release.

While sometimes, tie-in games unsurprisingly had to rework the story to offer more gameplay to keep players more engaged, other changes came from the studios working from earlier versions of a story. These even provided an unofficial, interactive deleted scene that sometimes gave gamers a bonus insight into the story that moviegoers didn’t always get.

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Most Movie Tie-Ins Can’t Be Revisited On Modern Consoles

Licensing Deals Have Long Expired

Unfortunately, most movie tie-ins can no longer be played unless players have a copy on their original consoles, as these titles are often not included in various backward compatibility schemes or available to purchase digitally, mainly due to various licensing deals expiring. Therefore, whole generations have gone entirely without some of the better licensed games of yesteryear, which is a shame.

With Nightdive Studios reviving 2002’s The Thing game – which didn’t follow the events of the movie but did provide some insight that tied up some loose ends, while taking the themes of paranoia in the movie and turning them into a core gameplay mechanic with its NPCs – then hopefully other studios could look to revive some of the other lost movie tie-in games from the PlayStation 2 era as well. Whether this is in the form of a remaster or remake, it would be nice to revisit some of these titles on modern hardware rather than dusting off the older consoles each time, as some of them, like the aforementioned Lord of the Rings games, still definitely hold up.