Coming soon to your local theater: more movies based on blockbuster video games.
In another sign of the convergence of popular video games and movies, Microsoft has announced that film director Peter Jackson will be the executive producer of its upcoming "Halo" movie.
The two Halo games, which are sci-fi "shooters" for Microsoft's Xbox game console, have sold more than 14 million copies, generating an estimated half billion dollars in sales for Microsoft. That makes it a natural topic for Jackson, who directed the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy and whose "King Kong" remake debuts in November. Jackson is an avid video game fan. In a video shown at a Microsoft event in Amsterdam to promote the company's new Xbox 360 video game console, Jackson said he played Halo 2 while making King Kong.
The new Xbox goes on sale in November. Analysts who heard the announcement said it was a shrewd marketing move by Microsoft, which is on a full-scale offensive to steal market share away from leader Sony, which launches the PlayStation 3 game console next year. Microsoft is in the midst of developing "Halo 3" for its new Xbox 360 model.
The launch date hasn't been announced for that game. But Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has said he would love to release Halo 3 on the same day that Sony launches the PlayStation 3. The company could build up even more hype by releasing the Halo movie at the same time, said P.J. McNealy, an analyst at American Technology Research.
In the meantime, Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, said the company is going to throw a lot of money behind another new video game, "Perfect Dark Zero," starring Joanna Dark as a femme assassin, as the launch title most likely to become "the next Halo." Microsoft will promote the game and others through marketing alliances, such as with shoe maker Adidas.
Peter Moore, corporate vice president of marketing and game publishing at Microsoft, said the company chose Jackson, as well as Fran Walsh, as executive producers because it knew they would do justice to the Halo game, which has received accolades for its rich story line. Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox will also collaborate in the creation of the film.
At an elaborate event before 1,000 journalists this week in Amsterdam, Microsoft also showed off the latest games for the Xbox 360, which debuts on Nov. 22 in North America and in December in Europe and Japan. Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer, said that more than 200 games are in the works. About 25 to 40 games will be ready within the first six months of the launch.
Electronic Arts, the biggest independent game publisher, has 25 Xbox 360 games in the works, including five for launch. EA said that its "Superman Returns" game, which will also be based on some new Warner Bros. movies, will debut on the Xbox 360.
"They're executing well," said Billy Pidgeon, an industry analyst. "They've got the big lead in online games and they're coming out first. That's going to give them a lot of advantages. Maybe they can sell 10 million consoles before the others can."
McNealy said that represents a considerable amount of firepower and that Microsoft is succeeding in attracting video-game developers' talent to its game console.
Todd Hollenshead, chief executive of "Doom" developer id Software, said his company was going to develop a new version of its "Castle Wolfenstein" game for the Xbox 360. That's a first, since the company normally targets its new games at personal computers.
Other key developers that said they would make exclusive games for the Xbox 360 were Bioware, Real-TimeWorlds, and Silicon Knights. Many of the developers in Microsoft's fold were once loyal to either the Japanese console makers or the PC.