Sometimes it can be refreshing to hear someone on the movie side of the entertainment industry admit that licensed games often end up in terrible shape. James Cameron has had numerous opportunities to see the good, the bad and the unplayable emerge from his creations like "Terminator" and "Dark Angel." He says that "Avatar" was a different sort of experience, however, and he would consider taking an original, unused property from his stockpile and developing it directly into a game.
"I've got a lot of stories, and I don't have enough time to make them all as movies," Cameron told X-Play at G4. "That's something I'm exploring with Ubisoft to see if maybe's a relationship around just getting these stories and world ideas into games — just completely independent of movies."
He cited rushed scheduled for churning out bad licensed games, which isn't a new criticism give the conflicts and disparate priorities between film industry marketing departments, who want a game out in time for their own release, and development teams in the gaming world who can't always meet such deadlines with a quality product.
"The general feeling around both the game industry and the movie business is that licensed games aren't very good -- mostly because they're rushed," Cameron said.
He also had some strong words for critics who think "Avatar" is too similar to "Halo."
"If I'm referencing anything, I'm referencing the source work for 'Halo,' which is my own stuff!" the director explained. "I get to do that. Nobody else gets to do that, but I get to do that."
I usually skeptical of anyone who tried to shoehorn a creation from one medium into another as a back-up plan, but in Cameron's case, his visual effects and art direction tend to be some of his most compelling work, so if he can leverage that to games with impressive results, I say more power to him.
Would you like to see Cameron work on more video games? What do you think of his "Halo" assessment? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.