While Activision had confirmed in a recent investor conference call that it would develop games based on the upcoming Transformers movie, today the company officially announced an agreement with Hasbro covering the entire Transformers franchise.
Activision now holds the rights to create videogames based on Hasbro's Transformers brand, which has produced robots in disguise since 1984. The movie-based game will be the first project under the agreement, and is expected to arrive alongside the film in July 2007.
The publisher has yet to announce an official title or specific platforms for the game, though Activision's agreement with Hasbro covers console, handheld, and PC games.
"We are thrilled to work with Activision to bring the widely popular Transformers brand to the world of digital entertainment and introduce millions of consumers to our best-known Transformer and biggest hero of all time -- Optimus Prime," said Hasbro's Jane Ritson-Parsons.
"Transformers has all of the elements necessary to translate incredibly well into video games," said Activision Publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith. "We look forward to bringing the Transformers robots to life with the latest interactive technology and graphics."
The Transformers aren't strangers to videogames: in 2004 Autobots and Decepticons clashed in Atari's Transformers for the PlayStation 2. Hasbro reacquired gaming rights to the series from Atari parent company Infogrames in June 2005.
The upcoming live-action Transformers film is directed by Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon). Steven Spielberg is serving as executive producer alongside Hasbro's Brian Goldner.
This is good news. Activision is a good company, and normally makes very solid games. Let's not forget that they have a hand in the Mechwarrior series of games too...
-Ss
I found God. Then I lost him. He'll probably turn up down the back of the sofa someday.
"The early bird gets the worm, but the early worm is ****ed."
"I'm not oppressing you Stan, but you haven't got a womb. Where's the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?"
Originally posted by deej I take this to be a positive thing, except for the fact that it means EA could stand to pick the license up, which would be bad...
Activision has the license, so that means EA cannot get it.
EDIT - Here is a list of a lot of Activision's releases to give people an idea of Activision's track record. Yes, there are a lot of great games on there, but none of those movie licensed games have been great and many have been pretty bad.
didnt activision make spider-man 2 though? that is one of the greatest movie based games of all time,
. "Hawkeye's the best! Hawkeye's got the cutest eyes! Hawkeye's got some kinda butt! I swear, Ralph, ever since that blowhard joined up, all I hear is Hawkeye, Hawkeye, Hawk...."- Green Arrow, JLA/Avengers #3.
*sig (once again) generously made by Denyer*
There's not much competition in the "greatest movie games of all time" catagory is there? It was a good game, but only for the web slinging, which Transformers does not have.
Originally posted by tahukanuva There's not much competition in the "greatest movie games of all time" catagory is there?
'Chronicles of Riddick:Escape from Butcher Bay' was pretty nifty and although it wasn't a direct tie in to an existing movie, its a nice example of what you can do with a license with a bit of imagination.
'Aliens Vs Predator'...same explanation and a fecking brilliant game.
Activision have the license, so after the movie tie in they may get a chance to suprise us all. Movie tie ins are by definition linear affairs due to being unable to deviate too much from the plot.
Actually the Harry Potter game 'Prisoner of Azkaban' was not a bad effort either.
![[The Transformers Archive - an international fan site]](/common/skin/cardbackwide/tfarchive.png)
. "Hawkeye's the best! Hawkeye's got the cutest eyes! Hawkeye's got some kinda butt! I swear, Ralph, ever since that blowhard joined up, all I hear is Hawkeye, Hawkeye, Hawk...."- Green Arrow, JLA/Avengers #3.
