Hollywood revelation: 'most games aren't movies,' also The Sims story details

Film has never been a medium that videogames translate particularly well to. I am in complete agreement with Jim Sterling that the reason for this (aside from obvious time constraints) is mostly due to a removal of the interactivity that makes a videogame a videogame. So long as a profit comes in, though, most of the people in Hollywood don’t seem to think too much about it. It’s like they see gaming as a conveniently placed field of ideas and pre-established IPs that’s just begging to be reaped in the name of media synergy.

The Sims movie producer John Davis at least recognizes that there’s a fundamental difference between the two mediums, although his plans to compensate for it don’t look particularly promising and mostly serve to highlight the pointlessness of bringing videogame franchises to film.

And Tom Rothman, the Chairman of Fox said to me, ‘How are you going to take this incredible piece of IP and make it into a movie?’ Right? Because most games aren’t movies, so this is the way I did it: The Sims, as you know, you can control your imaginary world, right? And our movie, a young man, a 16 year old kid of a 14 year old kid and his friend get their hands on this thing called the Sims Infinity Pack, right, which kind of this very strange video game store which was there just for that moment, and seemingly wasn’t all that. But what they realize is that they can scan their world in, because this is the most life like, real Sims game ever. And as they are playing this they are all of a sudden realizing is what they are playing on the game is having an effect on the real world. So in effect, through the game, they are able to control their world. It’s wish fulfillment, and obviously it turns against them.

That’s right folks; instead of just playing The Sims or The Sims 2 at any time on the platform of your choice, you’ll soon have the option of paying eight dollars at a movie theater to watch some child actors pretend to play it.

Best idea ever, right?