Universal skittish after Wanted flop, game ambitions not so daring

Movie giant Universal Pictures has withdrawn their expansive plans for the videogames market after the GRIN-developed, and Warner Bros published Wanted fared poorly.

It sold only 100,000 copies its release month, and missed the marketing clout of the film and DVD, starring Angelina Jolie. Pete Wanat has departed Universal, their gaming guru.

"Universal Pictures' hopes of becoming a major video game publisher have been put on hold in the face of a bad economy and a major flop," reports the LA Times.

The hit the videogames industry took as whole from the economic crisis compounded Universal's decision to scale back their ambitions for videogames. Wanted: Weapons of Fate was quite a disaster for the studio who had obviously hoped it would sell like hot cakes.

Developer GRIN has since collapsed following a string of poor performances, including other movie tie-in Terminator Salvation and Capcom's Bionic Commando. Uni aren't abandoning videogames altogether though, a number of external studios are developing.

The LA Times piece also says that a source claims the studio is considering "some original projects in the early stages of development" as videogames.

Was Wanted a flop for you, videogamer? Was GRIN to blame for shortcomings, or just 'a victim' of the impatience of movie studios and their executives?

Source: GamesIndustry.biz