Papers by James Fleury
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2023
Unionization efforts have only recently begun to address the exploitative conditions of working i... more Unionization efforts have only recently begun to address the exploitative conditions of working in video games. Despite such conditions dating back to the industry's origins, scholarship has tended to focus on contemporary labor issues over those of the past. To illustrate early forms of video game exploitation, I examine the history of industry pioneer Atari under the ownership of media conglomerate Warner Communications, Inc. (WCI) from 1976 to 1984. Soon after acquiring Atari, WCI installed a new CEO and pursued convergence initiatives. As a corporate ideal, convergence implies two cultures cooperating as they move toward becoming a single culture. I argue, however, that bringing together multiple media often creates conflict between different work cultures. Using the case studies of Superman (1979), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and the original Swordquest trilogy (1982–1983), I explain how WCI's convergence with Atari led to culture clashes, an exodus of talent, the rise of rival software companies, product saturation, and the transformation of the global video game market by the end of the 1980s. I conclude by considering how the conflict between WCI and Atari provides lessons for labor problems that continue to characterize the industry—both in isolation and in relation to older media industries.
In this presentation, I will investigate two contemporary franchising approaches: the legacyquel ... more In this presentation, I will investigate two contemporary franchising approaches: the legacyquel and the multiverse. For each, I will break down their defining elements, chart their origins, and determine their relationship to other serialized forms (e.g., sequels, reboots). I seek to understand their emergence as well as their narrative and industrial implications-particularly in cases that combine both approaches (e.g., 2023's The Flash). I argue that the legacyquel and multiverse help media companies maintain the relevance of their intellectual property through simultaneous appeals to established fans (e.g., maintaining continuity) and new audiences (e.g., providing points of entry).
This dissertation traces the history of convergence between “Hollywood” (i.e., the American film ... more This dissertation traces the history of convergence between “Hollywood” (i.e., the American film and television business) and the video game industry. It focuses on the Warner Bros. studio and its conglomerate owners (i.e., Warner Communications, Inc.; Time Warner; AOL Time Warner; and AT&T), whose video game industry involvement has included both in-house production (through Atari and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) and licensing arrangements with outside companies. Although “convergence” as a corporate ideal implies two cultures cooperating as they move toward becoming a single culture, its application as a corporate mandate often has led to competition arising out of established hierarchies between groups of creative workers within the media industries. This project charts how Hollywood conglomerates have found it challenging to practically implement video game-related convergence due to seemingly incompatible cultural differences between the games business and other media industries. Even as Warner has changed over time in terms of ownership and structure, I argue that its decades of game development and licensing show that convergence between so-called “old” and “new” media tends to involve struggles for not just creative control but also cultural survival.
Reflecting on continuities present throughout Warner’s video game history can provide insight into Hollywood’s contemporary, and future, involvement in emerging media. In particular, this history demonstrates a recurring trend throughout Hollywood of initially using new technology to promote existing old-media interests before experimenting with original content—all while maintaining a hierarchy in which the newer media and their creators occupy a lower position than those in older media. Through interviews with artists and executives connected to this history, analysis of trade and popular press reports, archival research, and close readings of particular games, this project considers the implications of trends underlying Warner’s conditions for creative labor in efforts to converge the film and video game industries. Based on these trends, I contend that Hollywood conglomerates will continue to approach the implementation of media convergence as an industrial ideal without regard for its practical effects on creative workers.
Adaptation, 2020
Review of my edited collection "The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy"
Comics | Games: From Hybrid Medialities to Transmedia Expansions, 2021
In this chapter, I analyze how Batman: Dark Tomorrow reflects changes in tie-in videogame product... more In this chapter, I analyze how Batman: Dark Tomorrow reflects changes in tie-in videogame production in the early 2000s and also prefigures the transmedia storytelling framework of the Arkhamverse franchise that began with Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009). While Batman: Dark Tomorrow anchored itself to the comic books, Batman: Arkham Asylum arrived in a different gaming landscape and consolidated elements from across the history of Batman media, including not just the comics but also the film and TV incarnations. Both games express how media franchises have turned to paratexts to sustain IP in between film releases, with Batman: Dark Tomorrow debuting before Batman Begins and Batman: Arkham Asylum arriving in between The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). After providing an overview of developments in scholarly and management approaches to transmedia storytelling, I examine how the Batman IP represents a complex web of multiple—sometimes intersecting, sometimes isolated—franchises. I then analyze the transmedia elements of Batman: Dark Tomorrow before concluding with an exploration as to why Batman: Arkham Asylum went on to receive a decidedly more enthusiastic response from critics and audiences. Together, these games demonstrate that efforts to implement transmedia storytelling in relation to Batman have proven challenging due to the IP’s multifranchisality. Based on a political economy of the media perspective and close readings of the games themselves, I argue that the difference in reception for Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Batman: Arkham Asylum lies in a combination of adaptation approaches and changes in managing media industry convergence.
Film Reboots (edited by Daniel Herbert and Constantine Verevis), 2020
This chapter examines reboot efforts within the Alien franchise during the 2010s within the conce... more This chapter examines reboot efforts within the Alien franchise during the 2010s within the conceptual frame of “transmedia franchising.” Looking particularly at Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, as well as several video games, it analyses how various promotional materials and narrative devices have taken variable approaches toward rebooting this franchise, including retconning and legacy rebooting. The chapter asserts that the Alien universe ‘has not necessarily followed a systematic, planned path,’ and accordingly shows how the franchise’s IP holder (first 20th Century-Fox, now Disney) devised variable ways to appeal to potential audiences.
The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy, 2019
The introduction chapter provides an overview of the key elements of media franchises in the cont... more The introduction chapter provides an overview of the key elements of media franchises in the context of ongoing digital technology developments. In particular, the chapter explains the history of media franchising and how technologies like video games and streaming video have encouraged a shift from multimedia to transmedia franchise management. A summary of significant shifts in contemporary media franchising follows, including a lack of mid-budget projects in favor of blockbusters, the replacement of stars with characters, experiments with cinematic universes instead of just one-off “tentpoles,” the role of television within franchise management, the pursuit of global audiences, and the entrance of Silicon Valley technology companies into Hollywood. The chapter concludes with a summary of the main ideas of each essay within the edited collection.
The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy (edited by James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber), 2019
This essay examines virtual reality (VR) in relation to Hollywood promotional strategies. I argue... more This essay examines virtual reality (VR) in relation to Hollywood promotional strategies. I argue that the VR format may be struggling to gain mainstream adoption, but media companies continue to use it in service of their existing film, television, and video game franchises.
The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy (edited by James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber), 2019
This essay works toward a definition of the media franchise and uses the Alien franchise (1979-Pr... more This essay works toward a definition of the media franchise and uses the Alien franchise (1979-Present) to consider how digital technologies have influenced a shift in franchise management from multimedia to transmedia. The Alien franchise illustrates how the transition from multimedia to transmedia has brought new demands, such as stricter continuity among texts, stronger collaboration between licensors and licensees, and regular engagement with fans. The authors argue that Hollywood’s turn from multimedia replication to transmedia expansion has led to conflicts of textual continuity, creative ownership, and public relations within the Alien franchise. The chapter dissects these conflicts through the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega, 2013) as a case study of media franchise mismanagement.
South Atlantic Review, 2015
Following the negative reception of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012), The Walt Disney Compa... more Following the negative reception of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012), The Walt Disney Company’s Disney Interactive division shuttered the game’s developer Junction Point. This closure signaled a definitive corporate shift from home console development to games made for the emerging mobile market, such as Where’s My Water? (2011). The company's multiplatform game Disney Infinity (2013) combines the collectible aspect of Activision’s Skylanders series (2011-Present) with the creativity-encouraging play mechanics of Mojang’s Minecraft (2009). As such, the game represents Disney’s reconciliation of the console and mobile markets to drive sales of branded merchandise available at retailers as well as the company’s own theme parks and brick-and-mortar stores. This paper analyzes how Disney Infinity functions both as a platform for video game adaptations of Disney media and as a means of cross-promoting various sectors of The Walt Disney Company amidst changes in the video game market.
Mediascape: UCLA’s Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 2015
The multiplatform Ni no Kuni (Bandai Namco, 2010/2013) represents anime studio Studio Ghibli's fi... more The multiplatform Ni no Kuni (Bandai Namco, 2010/2013) represents anime studio Studio Ghibli's first dedicated video game project. Although Japanese video game company Level-5 developed Ni no Kuni, Ghibli contributed to the story and was responsible for its visual design. The game demonstrates not only Ghibli's distinct visual style, but it also shares with the studio's films similar themes (loss of innocence, youth empowerment, the relationship between nature and technology) and storytelling characteristics (a young hero and a synthesis of Eastern and Western elements). Beyond its aesthetic and narrative contributions, Studio Ghibli also provided Level-5 a means of differentiating itself within the contemporary Japanese video game industry, as several companies attempt to expand into the West in response to shifts in the domestic market. Likewise, Ghibli has been adjusting to its own shifts, including co-founder Hayao Miyazaki's retirement from feature films and the studio's subsequent hiatus on film productions. As such, Ni no Kuni represents a particularly significant example of convergence between the anime and video industries, as it suggests paths for both Studio Ghibli and Level-5, as they each look to diversify into new markets and revenue streams.
James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy (edited by Michele Brittany), 2014
A uniquely multimedia (and not transmedia) franchise characterized by what Jonathan Gray refers t... more A uniquely multimedia (and not transmedia) franchise characterized by what Jonathan Gray refers to as “paratexts,” James Bond has been adapted to a variety of media following his introduction in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale in 1953. As with the character’s films, Bond video games have fluctuated wildly in relation to both audience and critical reception. While Activision’s GoldenEye 007 (2010) received much praise, the company’s subsequent 007 Legends (2012) has been mocked as a failure to adequately adapt the cinematic James Bond to games. These latest, and apparently final, Activision titles place the current 007, played by Daniel Craig, within stories based on non-Craig-starring Bond films, including Goldfinger (1964). While this anachronistic insertion is intended to modernize these classic stories, critics and fans have remarked that such jarring juxtaposition is disrespectful to the franchise’s history.
Building from work on the relationship between video games and films (such as Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska’s anthology ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces), my essay examines the complex narrative and franchise issues that these ret-conned Bond games raise. While other Bond paratexts are considered, such as games like Rare’s GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Electronic Arts’s GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) as well as the “Young Bond” and continuation novels, I focus on the franchise rewriting and reception of Activision’s GoldenEye 007 and 007 Legends. Particular attention is placed on adapting Bond’s characterization, tropes, and narratives while also examining the relationship between the franchise’s continued appeals to nostalgia and strive for relevance in the digital era.
Mediascape: UCLA’s Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 2012
Responding to the altered landscape of the Internet following the bursting of the dot-com bubble,... more Responding to the altered landscape of the Internet following the bursting of the dot-com bubble, Time declared its 2006 selection for “Person of the Year” as “You.” Commonly referred to as Web 2.0, this “new Web,” which the magazine hailed as “a revolution,” invites users to become engaged participants, as exemplified by websites like Wikipedia and YouTube. One of the most widely held beliefs about Web 2.0 is that its tools and principles “challenge corporate culture and logic, opening up cultural production, authorship, and distribution to seemingly anyone.” While the proliferation of user-generated content available online lends some theoretical credence to this democratic assumption, several critics have questioned such “You-topian rhetoric.” Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, for instance, argue that YouTube’s popularity, in fact, “illustrates the increasingly complex relations among producers and consumers in the creation of meaning, value, and agency." Although disagreement persists as to the degree to which the relationship between media producers and consumers has changed, it can be agreed that this relationship has changed as a result of the participatory culture of the Web 2.0 era. For example, the relationship between filmmaker James Rolfe and his fans demonstrates how Web 2.0 has opened up a more participatory style of fandom. As one of the original “stars” of YouTube and as founder of Cinemassacre Productions, based at Cinemassacre.com, Rolfe has created a highly devoted fan base with The Angry Video Game Nerd (2004, 2006-Present), a web series of satirical reviews of “bad” retro video games. A participatory ethnographic study of the fandom surrounding The Angry Video Game Nerd demonstrates how independent content producers can use Web 2.0 strategies to create a franchise in order to attract attention to the rest of their work.
Conference Presentations by James Fleury
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, 2024
In July 2021, Netflix announced the addition of video games to its mobile app and the creation of... more In July 2021, Netflix announced the addition of video games to its mobile app and the creation of a “Netflix Games” group to oversee development and publishing. According to Variety, this signaled Netflix’s “plans to enter the video game market” (Spangler 2021). However, reports about the announcement tended to obscure that the company had actually expanded into video games as early as 2017. During that year, Netflix had introduced not only its first interactive program with Puss in Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale and its first game-based television series with Castlevania but also its first video game with Netflix Infinite Runner. As a crossover of characters and settings from Marco Polo (2014-2016), Narcos (2015-2021), Orange Is the New Black (2013-2019), and Stranger Things (2016-Present), it was Netflix Endless Runner that truly signaled the company’s entrance into the video game market. By the time games appeared on its app, Netflix already had four years of experience working with licensees on tie-ins to its franchises.
While scholars continue to examine Netflix’s transformation from a DVD-rental service into a global media empire, the historical contributions of its licensed video games and their creators have been overlooked (Lotz 2022; Wayne and Uribe Sandoval 2023). I argue that Netflix’s licensed tie-ins performed at least three significant functions. First, they established the company’s presence beyond the streaming video market. Second, they promotionally and narratively extended its original programming into cross-media franchises. Third, they provided the opportunity to experiment in the video game industry from the relatively risk-averse position of a licensor before bringing development and publishing in-house.
I explore these contributions across a selection of tie-ins published before video games joined the Netflix app: Stranger Things: The Game (BonusXP, 2017), Narcos: Rise of the Cartels (Curve Games, 2019), and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (BonusXP, 2020). This presentation charts Netflix’s move from licensor to developer and publisher based on gameplay analysis, interviews with licensees, and industry lore about the company’s history. Charting this trajectory helps make sense of Netflix’s increasing involvement in the video game industry. Faced with competition from other subscription video on-demand services, Netflix has adopted video games for the purposes of product differentiation, franchise management, and global expansion.
To Be Continued 3: Defining, Producing, Performing, Consuming, and Theorizing Serials and Adaptations, 2023
In this presentation, I will investigate two contemporary franchising approaches: the legacyquel ... more In this presentation, I will investigate two contemporary franchising approaches: the legacyquel and the multiverse. For each, I will break down their defining elements, chart their origins, and determine their relationship to other serialized forms (e.g., sequels, reboots). I seek to understand their emergence as well as their narrative and industrial implications—particularly in cases that combine both approaches (e.g., 2023’s The Flash). I argue that the legacyquel and multiverse help media companies maintain the relevance of their intellectual property through simultaneous appeals to established fans (e.g., maintaining continuity) and new audiences (e.g., providing points of entry).
Video Games: Time and Nostalgia Symposium, 2023
In 1979, Mattel’s Intellivision video game console debuted as a rival to Atari’s VCS. Five years ... more In 1979, Mattel’s Intellivision video game console debuted as a rival to Atari’s VCS. Five years later, the North American video game industry crash caused Mattel to sell the Intellivision brand—which operated as INTV Corporation until 1991. Subsequent mainstream adoption of the Internet inspired an interest in retro gaming. In 1997, former Intellivision employees relaunched the company to capitalize on a larger commodification of video game nostalgia that included history books (e.g., Leonard Herman’s Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames [1994]), game compilations (e.g., Activision’s Atari 2600 Action Pack [1995]), and “plug-and-play” consoles (e.g., Atari’s “Flashback” line [2002-Present]). Retro video games have continued to generate interest from corporations (e.g., Nintendo’s “Classic Edition” consoles), museums (e.g., the National Videogame Museum), scholars (e.g., MIT Press’s “Game Histories” series), and consumers (e.g., collectors and investors).
It was within this context that, in 2018, composer and founder of the “Video Games Live” concert series Tommy Tallarico purchased the Intellivision rights, formed Intellivision Entertainment, and announced the development of Amico. According to Tallarico, this retro-themed console would appeal to “the non-gamer” due to its “simplicity” and all-ages content (Takahashi 2018). As of today, however, the Amico remains unreleased and Tallarico is no longer CEO. While Intellivision Entertainment has blamed pandemic-related supply chain issues, reports have called attention to examples of mismanagement—from lavish office equipment expenditures to Tallarico’s public debates with journalists and critics. Nonetheless, the Amico has maintained a dedicated following of individuals who see the console as an investment opportunity.
In this presentation, I will argue that the case of the Amico reflects tension within retro video game culture between speculators and collectors. I will draw from scholarship on retro video game culture and platform studies; published interviews; and social media discourse to contextualize the Amico in relation to the history of video game corporate revivals. I will begin by outlining this history before examining the development of the Amico and responses to the console from journalists, investors, and members of the retro video game community. I will conclude by comparing Intellivision’s nostalgia-commodification efforts to those of other former industry giants (e.g., Atari), current market-leaders (e.g., Nintendo), and independent developers (e.g., Digital Eclipse). Through this comparison, I position Amico as a case study of the conflict between preservation and profit that defines contemporary retro video game culture.
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, 2023
Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, scholars drew upon Henry Jenkins’s work on convergence (200... more Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, scholars drew upon Henry Jenkins’s work on convergence (2006) to examine the fraught relationship between video games and “old” media (see Elkington 2009; Brookey 2010; Aldred 2012). In the wake of the North American video game industry crash of the early 1980s, games based on films, television series, and comic books gained a reputation for frustrating gameplay and poor presentation. This reputation reflected a hierarchical production context that privileged older media over video games. As a result, developers often faced rushed schedules and created products perceived as failing to meaningfully contribute to their respective franchise beyond serving as promotion.
By 2013, licensed games had largely shifted from home consoles to mobile platforms. The release of the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One as part of the eighth console “generation” raised software development costs and inspired publishers to turn away from once-lucrative media licenses in favor of cultivating their own franchises. More recently, however, licensed games on consoles have made a comeback (Favis 2021). Higher production values distinguish these games from those of earlier console generations while an emphasis on storytelling sets them apart from contemporary mobile licensed games, which tend to only superficially reflect their source material. Although the video game industry has returned to media licenses, scholarship examining the context of this return remains limited.
This presentation seeks to address this gap by examining historical trends and changes in licensed video game production. Through a selection of titles featuring Marvel’s Spider-Man published between 1982 and 2021, I argue that licensed games have responded to changes in both the paratextual relationship between video games and other media industries as well as the production culture of licensed games themselves. In particular, these case studies reflect how licensed games have shifted from adaptations of existing material to original interpretations—which has allowed for greater creative freedom and less exploitative labor conditions during development. Tracing the history of Spider-Man games helps us understand why licensed games have started to earn a more favorable reputation while also revealing the significant role that video games have continued to play within media franchises over the past four decades in terms of promotion, fan engagement, and storytelling.
Southwest Popular/American Culture Association, 2023
Filmmaker and game designer Josef Fares represents an auteur within convergence culture. After wr... more Filmmaker and game designer Josef Fares represents an auteur within convergence culture. After writing and directing films inspired by growing up in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, Fares oversaw the video game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (2013). In addition to featuring a core mechanic of simultaneously controlling two characters, Brothers presents a coming-of-age story about two brothers set in a fantastical world ravaged by war. This combination of two-character game design and a thematic focus on familial conflict has characterized Fares’s subsequent games, 2018’s A Way Out and 2021’s It Takes Two. Developed by the Fares-founded Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts, both games used promotional campaigns that frame Fares as an auteur. In addition to winning Game of the Year at the 2021 Game Awards, It Takes Two is being adapted into a film produced by Fares. His return to filmmaking comes after the 2017 Game Awards at which Fares infamously declared, “Fuck the Oscars!” For Fares, despite its overtly promotional nature, the Game Awards legitimize video games as part of the games-as-art movement.
In this paper, I will argue that Fares’s expansion into game design, auteurist rhetoric, and presence at the Game Awards reflect a historical tension between cinema and video games over cultural and industrial legitimacy. I will draw upon published interviews, promotional material, and scholarship on video game authorship (DeWinter 2015; Hadas 2020; Švelch 2021) to chart how Fares has cultivated an auteur persona. I will conclude by considering the implications of auteurist framings of video game creators. While the concept of authorship raises the profile of video games as art, its validation can also downplay the collaborative reality of game production, limit player agency, and create toxic work environments at studios centered on an individual (e.g., Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games).
Canadian Game Studies Association Conference, 2022
Exploitative working conditions in the video game industry have recently generated media coverage... more Exploitative working conditions in the video game industry have recently generated media coverage and prompted calls for unionization (Schreier 2019; Bailey 2021). From its origins, however, the industry has had a problematic relationship with labor. This paper will present Atari’s refusal to credit developers as an early case study of exploitation. Using video game history scholarship, original interviews, and archival research, I argue that this mistreatment led to Atari’s downfall and the 1983 North American industry crash.
First, I will analyze the effects on labor following Atari’s 1976 acquisition by media conglomerate Warner Communications Inc. (WCI). Within two years, WCI had replaced Atari CEO and co-founder Nolan Bushnell with Ray Kassar, a textiles executive with little understanding of video games and the immaterial labor of their creators. In 1979, when most games represented the work of a single artist, a group of four developers realized that their games accounted for a majority of Atari’s revenues. After Kassar rejected their request for credit and royalties, this group quit to form the first third-party video game publisher, Activision, and inspired an influx of imitators.
Second, I will examine how labor tensions informed Atari’s strategy of competing with these new rivals. Created by Warren Robinett, 1979’s Adventure speaks to how Atari’s role within a conglomerate affected its work culture. Specifically, WCI’s Warner Bros. film unit demanded that Robinett abandon development of Adventure in favor of a tie-in to 1978’s Superman: The Movie. While Robinett managed to transfer Superman development duties to a colleague, Adventure’s code still served as the foundation for this first licensed tie-in to a film. With Adventure, Robinett presented a fantasy world filled with secrets—including a room featuring the words “Created by Warren Robinett.” This “Easter egg” reflected Robinett’s frustration over both the Superman mandate and being denied credit. Once awareness of the hidden room spread, Atari realized a market for Easter eggs existed. Faced with third-party competition, Atari co-opted Robinett’s act of protest and began to officially include Easter eggs in its games.
The most ambitious of these efforts can be found in 1982’s Swordquest, 1983’s Fireworld, and 1984’s Waterworld. Their promotional campaign involved a contest in which players needed to search for Easter eggs across not just each game but also a series of comic books from DC Comics. With this transmedia franchise, WCI more closely integrated Atari with other corporate holdings while Atari exploited its workers by commodifying their rebellion.
Third, I will conclude by drawing links between Atari’s labor conflicts, the company’s downfall, and the larger industry crash. Specifically, Kassar’s refusal to provide financial and symbolic compensation led to a developer exodus, a wave of new companies, and an accompanying flood of games. To compete, Atari prioritized a series of ill-fated, media-convergence projects—including the Swordquest franchise and 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Had Atari treated its developers differently, WCI may not have divested itself of the company in 1984. Instead, Atari demonstrates how labor conflicts and acts of protest have shaped video game history.
Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National Conference, 2022
In 2021, an $870,000 copy of The Legend of Zelda became the most expensive video game sold at auc... more In 2021, an $870,000 copy of The Legend of Zelda became the most expensive video game sold at auction—that is, until a Super Mario 64 cartridge collected $1.56 million a week later. These sales represented the latest in a destabilizing trend within the subculture of retro video games. Authentication companies and auction houses have recently established a market for selling “graded” games (i.e., those whose authenticity and appearance have been evaluated). I will argue that this market reflects pandemic-fueled nostalgia as well as concerns about preserving retrogaming culture and gaming history.
First, I will frame graded games as part of the pandemic nostalgia economy. Stay-at-home orders, financial instability, and escapism have inspired get-rich-quick schemes focused on the past—including investments in retro games as well as in once-healthy businesses (e.g., GameStop) and once-popular collectibles (e.g., Pokémon cards).
I will then examine responses from retrogaming enthusiasts, who have suspected collusion among grading and auction companies to inflate prices as a means of gaining press attention and customers. This suggests concerns over being priced out of their hobby and hostility toward new members presumably more interested in profits than collecting.
I will conclude by positioning graded games as a reminder that perceptions of value remain contested in relation to gaming history. Whereas speculators and companies regard retrogaming as a business opportunity, collectors and historians privilege preservation. Understanding the discursive tension among these stakeholders can provide insight into video game history as a market, subculture, and area of scholarship.
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Papers by James Fleury
Reflecting on continuities present throughout Warner’s video game history can provide insight into Hollywood’s contemporary, and future, involvement in emerging media. In particular, this history demonstrates a recurring trend throughout Hollywood of initially using new technology to promote existing old-media interests before experimenting with original content—all while maintaining a hierarchy in which the newer media and their creators occupy a lower position than those in older media. Through interviews with artists and executives connected to this history, analysis of trade and popular press reports, archival research, and close readings of particular games, this project considers the implications of trends underlying Warner’s conditions for creative labor in efforts to converge the film and video game industries. Based on these trends, I contend that Hollywood conglomerates will continue to approach the implementation of media convergence as an industrial ideal without regard for its practical effects on creative workers.
Building from work on the relationship between video games and films (such as Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska’s anthology ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces), my essay examines the complex narrative and franchise issues that these ret-conned Bond games raise. While other Bond paratexts are considered, such as games like Rare’s GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Electronic Arts’s GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) as well as the “Young Bond” and continuation novels, I focus on the franchise rewriting and reception of Activision’s GoldenEye 007 and 007 Legends. Particular attention is placed on adapting Bond’s characterization, tropes, and narratives while also examining the relationship between the franchise’s continued appeals to nostalgia and strive for relevance in the digital era.
Conference Presentations by James Fleury
While scholars continue to examine Netflix’s transformation from a DVD-rental service into a global media empire, the historical contributions of its licensed video games and their creators have been overlooked (Lotz 2022; Wayne and Uribe Sandoval 2023). I argue that Netflix’s licensed tie-ins performed at least three significant functions. First, they established the company’s presence beyond the streaming video market. Second, they promotionally and narratively extended its original programming into cross-media franchises. Third, they provided the opportunity to experiment in the video game industry from the relatively risk-averse position of a licensor before bringing development and publishing in-house.
I explore these contributions across a selection of tie-ins published before video games joined the Netflix app: Stranger Things: The Game (BonusXP, 2017), Narcos: Rise of the Cartels (Curve Games, 2019), and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (BonusXP, 2020). This presentation charts Netflix’s move from licensor to developer and publisher based on gameplay analysis, interviews with licensees, and industry lore about the company’s history. Charting this trajectory helps make sense of Netflix’s increasing involvement in the video game industry. Faced with competition from other subscription video on-demand services, Netflix has adopted video games for the purposes of product differentiation, franchise management, and global expansion.
It was within this context that, in 2018, composer and founder of the “Video Games Live” concert series Tommy Tallarico purchased the Intellivision rights, formed Intellivision Entertainment, and announced the development of Amico. According to Tallarico, this retro-themed console would appeal to “the non-gamer” due to its “simplicity” and all-ages content (Takahashi 2018). As of today, however, the Amico remains unreleased and Tallarico is no longer CEO. While Intellivision Entertainment has blamed pandemic-related supply chain issues, reports have called attention to examples of mismanagement—from lavish office equipment expenditures to Tallarico’s public debates with journalists and critics. Nonetheless, the Amico has maintained a dedicated following of individuals who see the console as an investment opportunity.
In this presentation, I will argue that the case of the Amico reflects tension within retro video game culture between speculators and collectors. I will draw from scholarship on retro video game culture and platform studies; published interviews; and social media discourse to contextualize the Amico in relation to the history of video game corporate revivals. I will begin by outlining this history before examining the development of the Amico and responses to the console from journalists, investors, and members of the retro video game community. I will conclude by comparing Intellivision’s nostalgia-commodification efforts to those of other former industry giants (e.g., Atari), current market-leaders (e.g., Nintendo), and independent developers (e.g., Digital Eclipse). Through this comparison, I position Amico as a case study of the conflict between preservation and profit that defines contemporary retro video game culture.
By 2013, licensed games had largely shifted from home consoles to mobile platforms. The release of the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One as part of the eighth console “generation” raised software development costs and inspired publishers to turn away from once-lucrative media licenses in favor of cultivating their own franchises. More recently, however, licensed games on consoles have made a comeback (Favis 2021). Higher production values distinguish these games from those of earlier console generations while an emphasis on storytelling sets them apart from contemporary mobile licensed games, which tend to only superficially reflect their source material. Although the video game industry has returned to media licenses, scholarship examining the context of this return remains limited.
This presentation seeks to address this gap by examining historical trends and changes in licensed video game production. Through a selection of titles featuring Marvel’s Spider-Man published between 1982 and 2021, I argue that licensed games have responded to changes in both the paratextual relationship between video games and other media industries as well as the production culture of licensed games themselves. In particular, these case studies reflect how licensed games have shifted from adaptations of existing material to original interpretations—which has allowed for greater creative freedom and less exploitative labor conditions during development. Tracing the history of Spider-Man games helps us understand why licensed games have started to earn a more favorable reputation while also revealing the significant role that video games have continued to play within media franchises over the past four decades in terms of promotion, fan engagement, and storytelling.
In this paper, I will argue that Fares’s expansion into game design, auteurist rhetoric, and presence at the Game Awards reflect a historical tension between cinema and video games over cultural and industrial legitimacy. I will draw upon published interviews, promotional material, and scholarship on video game authorship (DeWinter 2015; Hadas 2020; Švelch 2021) to chart how Fares has cultivated an auteur persona. I will conclude by considering the implications of auteurist framings of video game creators. While the concept of authorship raises the profile of video games as art, its validation can also downplay the collaborative reality of game production, limit player agency, and create toxic work environments at studios centered on an individual (e.g., Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games).
First, I will analyze the effects on labor following Atari’s 1976 acquisition by media conglomerate Warner Communications Inc. (WCI). Within two years, WCI had replaced Atari CEO and co-founder Nolan Bushnell with Ray Kassar, a textiles executive with little understanding of video games and the immaterial labor of their creators. In 1979, when most games represented the work of a single artist, a group of four developers realized that their games accounted for a majority of Atari’s revenues. After Kassar rejected their request for credit and royalties, this group quit to form the first third-party video game publisher, Activision, and inspired an influx of imitators.
Second, I will examine how labor tensions informed Atari’s strategy of competing with these new rivals. Created by Warren Robinett, 1979’s Adventure speaks to how Atari’s role within a conglomerate affected its work culture. Specifically, WCI’s Warner Bros. film unit demanded that Robinett abandon development of Adventure in favor of a tie-in to 1978’s Superman: The Movie. While Robinett managed to transfer Superman development duties to a colleague, Adventure’s code still served as the foundation for this first licensed tie-in to a film. With Adventure, Robinett presented a fantasy world filled with secrets—including a room featuring the words “Created by Warren Robinett.” This “Easter egg” reflected Robinett’s frustration over both the Superman mandate and being denied credit. Once awareness of the hidden room spread, Atari realized a market for Easter eggs existed. Faced with third-party competition, Atari co-opted Robinett’s act of protest and began to officially include Easter eggs in its games.
The most ambitious of these efforts can be found in 1982’s Swordquest, 1983’s Fireworld, and 1984’s Waterworld. Their promotional campaign involved a contest in which players needed to search for Easter eggs across not just each game but also a series of comic books from DC Comics. With this transmedia franchise, WCI more closely integrated Atari with other corporate holdings while Atari exploited its workers by commodifying their rebellion.
Third, I will conclude by drawing links between Atari’s labor conflicts, the company’s downfall, and the larger industry crash. Specifically, Kassar’s refusal to provide financial and symbolic compensation led to a developer exodus, a wave of new companies, and an accompanying flood of games. To compete, Atari prioritized a series of ill-fated, media-convergence projects—including the Swordquest franchise and 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Had Atari treated its developers differently, WCI may not have divested itself of the company in 1984. Instead, Atari demonstrates how labor conflicts and acts of protest have shaped video game history.
First, I will frame graded games as part of the pandemic nostalgia economy. Stay-at-home orders, financial instability, and escapism have inspired get-rich-quick schemes focused on the past—including investments in retro games as well as in once-healthy businesses (e.g., GameStop) and once-popular collectibles (e.g., Pokémon cards).
I will then examine responses from retrogaming enthusiasts, who have suspected collusion among grading and auction companies to inflate prices as a means of gaining press attention and customers. This suggests concerns over being priced out of their hobby and hostility toward new members presumably more interested in profits than collecting.
I will conclude by positioning graded games as a reminder that perceptions of value remain contested in relation to gaming history. Whereas speculators and companies regard retrogaming as a business opportunity, collectors and historians privilege preservation. Understanding the discursive tension among these stakeholders can provide insight into video game history as a market, subculture, and area of scholarship.
Reflecting on continuities present throughout Warner’s video game history can provide insight into Hollywood’s contemporary, and future, involvement in emerging media. In particular, this history demonstrates a recurring trend throughout Hollywood of initially using new technology to promote existing old-media interests before experimenting with original content—all while maintaining a hierarchy in which the newer media and their creators occupy a lower position than those in older media. Through interviews with artists and executives connected to this history, analysis of trade and popular press reports, archival research, and close readings of particular games, this project considers the implications of trends underlying Warner’s conditions for creative labor in efforts to converge the film and video game industries. Based on these trends, I contend that Hollywood conglomerates will continue to approach the implementation of media convergence as an industrial ideal without regard for its practical effects on creative workers.
Building from work on the relationship between video games and films (such as Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska’s anthology ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces), my essay examines the complex narrative and franchise issues that these ret-conned Bond games raise. While other Bond paratexts are considered, such as games like Rare’s GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Electronic Arts’s GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) as well as the “Young Bond” and continuation novels, I focus on the franchise rewriting and reception of Activision’s GoldenEye 007 and 007 Legends. Particular attention is placed on adapting Bond’s characterization, tropes, and narratives while also examining the relationship between the franchise’s continued appeals to nostalgia and strive for relevance in the digital era.
While scholars continue to examine Netflix’s transformation from a DVD-rental service into a global media empire, the historical contributions of its licensed video games and their creators have been overlooked (Lotz 2022; Wayne and Uribe Sandoval 2023). I argue that Netflix’s licensed tie-ins performed at least three significant functions. First, they established the company’s presence beyond the streaming video market. Second, they promotionally and narratively extended its original programming into cross-media franchises. Third, they provided the opportunity to experiment in the video game industry from the relatively risk-averse position of a licensor before bringing development and publishing in-house.
I explore these contributions across a selection of tie-ins published before video games joined the Netflix app: Stranger Things: The Game (BonusXP, 2017), Narcos: Rise of the Cartels (Curve Games, 2019), and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (BonusXP, 2020). This presentation charts Netflix’s move from licensor to developer and publisher based on gameplay analysis, interviews with licensees, and industry lore about the company’s history. Charting this trajectory helps make sense of Netflix’s increasing involvement in the video game industry. Faced with competition from other subscription video on-demand services, Netflix has adopted video games for the purposes of product differentiation, franchise management, and global expansion.
It was within this context that, in 2018, composer and founder of the “Video Games Live” concert series Tommy Tallarico purchased the Intellivision rights, formed Intellivision Entertainment, and announced the development of Amico. According to Tallarico, this retro-themed console would appeal to “the non-gamer” due to its “simplicity” and all-ages content (Takahashi 2018). As of today, however, the Amico remains unreleased and Tallarico is no longer CEO. While Intellivision Entertainment has blamed pandemic-related supply chain issues, reports have called attention to examples of mismanagement—from lavish office equipment expenditures to Tallarico’s public debates with journalists and critics. Nonetheless, the Amico has maintained a dedicated following of individuals who see the console as an investment opportunity.
In this presentation, I will argue that the case of the Amico reflects tension within retro video game culture between speculators and collectors. I will draw from scholarship on retro video game culture and platform studies; published interviews; and social media discourse to contextualize the Amico in relation to the history of video game corporate revivals. I will begin by outlining this history before examining the development of the Amico and responses to the console from journalists, investors, and members of the retro video game community. I will conclude by comparing Intellivision’s nostalgia-commodification efforts to those of other former industry giants (e.g., Atari), current market-leaders (e.g., Nintendo), and independent developers (e.g., Digital Eclipse). Through this comparison, I position Amico as a case study of the conflict between preservation and profit that defines contemporary retro video game culture.
By 2013, licensed games had largely shifted from home consoles to mobile platforms. The release of the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One as part of the eighth console “generation” raised software development costs and inspired publishers to turn away from once-lucrative media licenses in favor of cultivating their own franchises. More recently, however, licensed games on consoles have made a comeback (Favis 2021). Higher production values distinguish these games from those of earlier console generations while an emphasis on storytelling sets them apart from contemporary mobile licensed games, which tend to only superficially reflect their source material. Although the video game industry has returned to media licenses, scholarship examining the context of this return remains limited.
This presentation seeks to address this gap by examining historical trends and changes in licensed video game production. Through a selection of titles featuring Marvel’s Spider-Man published between 1982 and 2021, I argue that licensed games have responded to changes in both the paratextual relationship between video games and other media industries as well as the production culture of licensed games themselves. In particular, these case studies reflect how licensed games have shifted from adaptations of existing material to original interpretations—which has allowed for greater creative freedom and less exploitative labor conditions during development. Tracing the history of Spider-Man games helps us understand why licensed games have started to earn a more favorable reputation while also revealing the significant role that video games have continued to play within media franchises over the past four decades in terms of promotion, fan engagement, and storytelling.
In this paper, I will argue that Fares’s expansion into game design, auteurist rhetoric, and presence at the Game Awards reflect a historical tension between cinema and video games over cultural and industrial legitimacy. I will draw upon published interviews, promotional material, and scholarship on video game authorship (DeWinter 2015; Hadas 2020; Švelch 2021) to chart how Fares has cultivated an auteur persona. I will conclude by considering the implications of auteurist framings of video game creators. While the concept of authorship raises the profile of video games as art, its validation can also downplay the collaborative reality of game production, limit player agency, and create toxic work environments at studios centered on an individual (e.g., Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games).
First, I will analyze the effects on labor following Atari’s 1976 acquisition by media conglomerate Warner Communications Inc. (WCI). Within two years, WCI had replaced Atari CEO and co-founder Nolan Bushnell with Ray Kassar, a textiles executive with little understanding of video games and the immaterial labor of their creators. In 1979, when most games represented the work of a single artist, a group of four developers realized that their games accounted for a majority of Atari’s revenues. After Kassar rejected their request for credit and royalties, this group quit to form the first third-party video game publisher, Activision, and inspired an influx of imitators.
Second, I will examine how labor tensions informed Atari’s strategy of competing with these new rivals. Created by Warren Robinett, 1979’s Adventure speaks to how Atari’s role within a conglomerate affected its work culture. Specifically, WCI’s Warner Bros. film unit demanded that Robinett abandon development of Adventure in favor of a tie-in to 1978’s Superman: The Movie. While Robinett managed to transfer Superman development duties to a colleague, Adventure’s code still served as the foundation for this first licensed tie-in to a film. With Adventure, Robinett presented a fantasy world filled with secrets—including a room featuring the words “Created by Warren Robinett.” This “Easter egg” reflected Robinett’s frustration over both the Superman mandate and being denied credit. Once awareness of the hidden room spread, Atari realized a market for Easter eggs existed. Faced with third-party competition, Atari co-opted Robinett’s act of protest and began to officially include Easter eggs in its games.
The most ambitious of these efforts can be found in 1982’s Swordquest, 1983’s Fireworld, and 1984’s Waterworld. Their promotional campaign involved a contest in which players needed to search for Easter eggs across not just each game but also a series of comic books from DC Comics. With this transmedia franchise, WCI more closely integrated Atari with other corporate holdings while Atari exploited its workers by commodifying their rebellion.
Third, I will conclude by drawing links between Atari’s labor conflicts, the company’s downfall, and the larger industry crash. Specifically, Kassar’s refusal to provide financial and symbolic compensation led to a developer exodus, a wave of new companies, and an accompanying flood of games. To compete, Atari prioritized a series of ill-fated, media-convergence projects—including the Swordquest franchise and 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Had Atari treated its developers differently, WCI may not have divested itself of the company in 1984. Instead, Atari demonstrates how labor conflicts and acts of protest have shaped video game history.
First, I will frame graded games as part of the pandemic nostalgia economy. Stay-at-home orders, financial instability, and escapism have inspired get-rich-quick schemes focused on the past—including investments in retro games as well as in once-healthy businesses (e.g., GameStop) and once-popular collectibles (e.g., Pokémon cards).
I will then examine responses from retrogaming enthusiasts, who have suspected collusion among grading and auction companies to inflate prices as a means of gaining press attention and customers. This suggests concerns over being priced out of their hobby and hostility toward new members presumably more interested in profits than collecting.
I will conclude by positioning graded games as a reminder that perceptions of value remain contested in relation to gaming history. Whereas speculators and companies regard retrogaming as a business opportunity, collectors and historians privilege preservation. Understanding the discursive tension among these stakeholders can provide insight into video game history as a market, subculture, and area of scholarship.
A decade later, HBO’s Watchmen television series adopted a radically different approach by following contemporary trends in media franchise management. For instance, in a letter posted to Instagram during the series’ production, showrunner Damon Lindelof explained, “We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted. They will, however, be remixed.” Indeed, in a Film Quarterly roundtable, Michael Boyce Gillespie described the series “as a disobedient adaptation that modifies, extends, and redirects the worldmaking of the source.” Like the film before it, the series drew a polarizing response. Despite earning Best Limited Series at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, HBO’s Watchmen holds a higher critic score than audience score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes—whereas the inverse relationship remains true of the film.
This presentation will explore HBO’s Watchmen in relation to Snyder’s film and the original comics. In particular, I will position the TV series as both a legacy adaptation and an example of genre elevation. First, I will use the term “legacy adaptation” to refer to the contemporary industry trend of rebooting a media franchise with a sequel featuring new, younger characters existing alongside aged versions of established characters in the same storyworld. Alongside Cobra Kai (YouTube/Netflix, 2018-Present), Watchmen stands as one of the few legacy sequels—or “legacyquels”—to take a transmedia storytelling approach by continuing its franchise in a different medium. Second, I will use the term “genre elevation” to refer to the recent cycle of “prestige” films and TV series adopting genre frameworks to examine socially relevant themes (e.g., Get Out [Jordan Peele, 2017] and Lovecraft Country [HBO, 2020]). By framing it as a legacy adaptation and elevated superhero TV series, I will argue that Watchmen updates its source material by not only further developing the narrative, characters, and world but also by recontextualizing them in relation to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and thematically examining national, family, and personal responses to trauma. By focusing on the texts themselves as well as on their critical and audience reception, I will explain how Watchmen suggests the challenges for media franchises in balancing fan service and social justice.
Based on the r/DVDcollection forum, or subreddit, on the social media platform Reddit, this presentation will examine the subcultural practices of home video enthusiasts. For instance, these Redditors (i.e., Reddit users) share pictures of their home video collections, celebrate their purchases, and lament the loss of physical media sections at Best Buy and other retailers. I will argue that DVD and Blu-ray collecting reflects nostalgia for physical media and anxiety over the increasing digitization and platformization of Hollywood in particular and movie culture in general—including theaters converting from film to digital projection; films bypassing theaters for streaming distribution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; studios consolidating their home video divisions; some recent films not being released on physical media at all; and legal battles over digital media ownership.
This presentation will engage with scholarship on home video and social media as well as with media industry trade publications and interviews with media industry professionals and Redditors to understand how home video consumption has changed in response to streaming, where it might go in a post-pandemic world, and why this community and its behaviors matter to film and media scholars.
I will begin by explaining how the rise of loot boxes in console-based video games has paralleled the decline of licensed games on home consoles. I will then break down the reasons for EA adopting a games-as-a-service approach to the Star Wars video game license since acquiring it in 2013. The main section of my presentation will focus on audience, licensor, and regulatory responses to this approach in Star Wars Battlefront II. First, audience critiques of loot boxes reflect discourses within so-called “video game culture” about the use of mobile game mechanics, like loot boxes, in console games. Second, the Walt Disney Company’s critique of loot boxes reflects the tension inherent in media licensing between owners and vendors. Third, regulators in multiple regions—including the United States and Europe—have called attention to the predatory nature of loot boxes and other gambling mechanics. I will conclude by considering publishers’ continued reliance on games-as-a-service elements despite these criticisms. Based on research on video game culture, loot boxes, and licensing, I intend to demonstrate that specific technological, industrial, and cultural factors—beyond just the potential for revenue—are to blame.
Whereas earlier tie-ins tended to promote a new film by directly adapting it, contemporary tie-ins more frequently contribute original narrative material. Legacy tie-ins, then, represent a form of transmedia extension. My presentation will compare the narrative elements between transmedia tie-ins—including Alien: Isolation (Sega, 2014) and Predator: Hunting Grounds (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020)—and legacy installments of game franchises—including Gears of War 4 (Microsoft Studios, 2016) and God of War (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2018). Based on this comparison, I will present a model that breaks down how legacy storytelling in video games functions differently than in films. I argue that, although legacy tie-ins aim for the same multi-generational appeal as legacy films, they also reflect a larger tension between nostalgia and innovation that defines the global video game industry and so-called “video game culture.”
Since Amazon acquired it in 2014, Twitch has gradually expanded from amateur live broadcasts of video game-play to more mainstream programming. This expansion started with licensed, kitsch TV series (e.g., The Joy of Painting [PBS, 1983-1994]) before featuring Amazon Studios pilots and, more recently, professional sports games. Twitch has transitioned from a largely autonomous subsidiary into a core component of Amazon’s media strategy by providing distribution as well as market research and community engagement through its live-chat feature that runs during broadcasts. At the same time, Amazon also has changed its broader content approach, moving from independent, prestige fare to more commercial, franchise media (e.g., the upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series). By tracing the evolving strategies of and relationship between Twitch and Amazon Studios, this paper explores the advantages of FAANG’s algorithmic culture over legacy media industry players like The Walt Disney Company and AT&T in the streaming wars.
Building upon the critical media industries approach of scholars like José Van Dijck (2013), this paper examines Twitch’s relation to the Amazon platform and to the wider convergence between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. It begins with an overview of how both Amazon Studios and Twitch have transitioned from niche to mainstream content. Next, I read Twitch’s transition as a way for Amazon to train the highly engaged Twitch audience to adapt to progressively more commercial programming, all in support of ecommerce. Finally, I close by extrapolating on the functions Twitch will serve as Amazon continues to create a self-sustaining ecosystem ideal for media franchising. As other members of FAANG use established business models to carve out a space in Hollywood, I argue that Twitch will support Amazon’s franchising strategy by reshaping media industry assumptions about development, market research, and retail.
The Alien franchise illustrates how the shift from multimedia to transmedia has brought new demands, such as stricter continuity among texts and stronger collaboration between licensors and licensees. Under multimedia, franchises follow a top-down form of management in which an ancillary text (e.g., a tie-in video game) repeats the narrative of a mothership text (e.g., a film). The digital era, however, has encouraged a more integrated and less hierarchical form of management. Henry Jenkins (2006) has noted that franchises within our contemporary convergence culture leverage multiple media to create more complex, intertextual stories and more expansive storyworlds. Put another way, whereas multimedia franchises involve narrative repetition, transmedia franchises involve narrative expansion.
Building upon the work of Derek Johnson (2013) and Daniel Herbert (2017), I provide a historical intervention into media franchise management strategies by examining the overlapping textual and industrial aspects of Alien and its successors. The paper begins by analyzing the Alien franchise’s shift from multimedia to transmedia management. I then present the tie-in video game Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega, 2013) as an example of franchise mismanagement and argue that it represents the challenges of navigating these shifts.
Because each ancillary text affects a franchise’s storyworld, transmedia raises the stakes for each text to add financial and narrative value. In multimedia networks where the narrative does not extend beyond mothership texts, tie-ins could be written off as peripheral, but Aliens: Colonial Marines demonstrates how, under transmedia, ancillaries perceived to be lacking in added value can be discredited by having their narrative contributions retroactively written out of continuity. The game’s troubled production context suggests that the Alien franchise has remained rife with conflict, even as transmedia has replaced multimedia as the dominant organizational logic.
Starting with LEGO Star Wars in 2005, TT has cultivated a uniquely humorous tie-in approach. Although Warner Bros. (WB) acquired TT in 2007, the developer has remained autonomous enough to work with both internal IP and external licenses. This synthesis of studio ownership and creative freedom enabled TT to launch Lego Dimensions, a “toys-to-life” platform for which tie-ins appeared from 2015 to 2017.
This presentation explores how LEGO Dimensions represents a complex web of adaptation. Its gameplay involves real-world minifigures and vehicles that players scan into the game with a USB toy pad. Using these scanned toys, the story brings together otherwise distinct IP, including WB’s Batman and the BBC’s Doctor Who.
With its convergence of franchises and of physical and digital play, LEGO Dimensions leverages multiple forms of adaptation. Specifically, it translates characters and props into plastic LEGOs before digitally delivering them into video game levels that retell the stories of their source texts in a significantly condensed manner. While this recalls the character and narrative abstraction that appears in contemporary mobile tie-ins as well as in early tie-ins like 1982’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, it also challenges traditional tie-in strategies.
I argue that, on the one hand, LEGO Dimensions, like most home console tie-ins before it, directly adapts its source material; on the other hand, its multi-layered approach allows for a looser, more anarchic take. I base this argument on video game adaptation studies and original and published interviews with executives and creatives involved with the game. With the platform’s Back to the Future “Level Pack” as a case study, I look at how LEGO Dimensions synthesizes home console and mobile tie-in adaptation strategies and stands as a model for future video games based on media franchises.
Superman represents an appropriate case study given its place as one of the first products of film and video game industrial convergence that grew out of the New Hollywood. Following Warner Communications Inc.’s 1976 acquisition of Atari, the conglomerate demanded a video game tie-in to promote the Warner Bros. film Superman (Richard Donner, 1978). Several Atari programmers rejected the project until John Dunn accepted on the condition that he could use the existing code from his co-worker Warren Robinett’s in-development Adventure (Atari, 1980). From an industrial perspective, I argue that Superman showcases the tendency for tie-ins to be based on pre-existing games and to be part of a production culture hierarchy that privileges film.
Narratively, Superman adapts a single sequence from its source film, centering on the title character’s efforts to repair a fallen bridge. In this way, the product set the precedent for subsequent tie-ins to isolate their source texts to only one sequence — such as the Battle of Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Parker Brothers, 1982) and the action set-pieces that comprise James Bond 007 (Parker Brothers, 1982).
Just as this narrative condensing stems from the technological limitations of early home consoles, the first tie-ins leveraged iconography to identity themselves as licensed products. The visual recognition in Superman comes from the player’s control of the eponymous avatar — identified by his billowing, pixelated cape — and the presence of signifiers like the Daily Planet building and Kryptonite crystals. Because of this, Superman demonstrates the abstract approach that early tie-ins took with representation (Aldred, 2012).
Based on Superman’s development history, narrative, gameplay, and visuals, I argue that the game represents the generic prototype for tie-in video games. I base this argument on game genre studies, video game histories, and original and published interviews with executives and creatives involved with the game.
Despite retaining the film’s time period and characters (even managing to pull Sean Connery out of retirement to voice Bond), 007: From Russia With Love (EA, 2005) deviates strongly from its source material. Given that the film’s grounded nature would not lend itself to an action-gaming experience, EA incorporated elements to expand and retcon the film’s narrative to more closely align it with subsequent, sci-fi-heavy entries like You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967). For instance, while the cinematic Bond dispatches the villainous Red Grant aboard the Orient Express, the ludic Bond’s final confrontation with Grant involves a giant, mechanical octopus weapon.
These fantastical flourishes -- which also include a jetpack and a remote-controlled “Q-Copter” -- allow the game to paratextually reframe the film for audiences, such as myself, who had been introduced to the screen series through GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo, 1997) and similarly over-the-top James Bond video games. To explore this reframing, I draw from Jonathan Gray’s theorization of paratexts as contributors of franchise meaning and from Tony Bennett and Janet Woollacott’s concept of Bond as a “floating signifier,” or a character capable of adapting to various contexts. I argue that 007: From Russia With Love demonstrates that floating signifiers can describe not only single characters but also entire texts, as the game adapts the 1963 film to a contemporary video game context.
I situate my analysis within the histories of the Bond film franchise and the video game industry. Specifically, in the mid-2000s, several publishers mined older film properties at the height of the DVD boom, with games such as The Warriors (Rockstar, 2005) and Godfather: The Game (EA, 2006) capitalizing on their sources’ home video recognition. I thus use 007: From Russia With Love to propose that loosely serialized franchises like Bond sometimes use paratexts -- a term problematically implying a textual hierarchy -- for “intermedial retconning,” as the game recontextualized the film’s narrative in order to promote the franchise’s legacy to younger audiences and to maintain brand awareness during an uncharacteristically long gap between film releases.
I argue that this policy, despite upsetting licensed developers at the time of its announcement, helped WBIE eventually become – as of this writing – 2015’s top-performing video game publisher. I provide an overview of the complex realities of licensed game development and explore the causes, implementation, and consequences of WBIE’s policy. More broadly, I argue that, among the major film and television studios, Warner Bros. has been the most commercially and artistically successful in the video game space due to its intellectual property management, executive hiring practices, acquisition and establishment of developers, and emphasis on using video games as a distinct medium. I conclude by contrasting this success with the studio’s earlier failed ownership of Atari.
Methodologically, I discuss the policy in relation to three Batman-related games (specifically, Batman: Dark Tomorrow [Kemco, 2003], Batman Begins [Electronic Arts, 2005], and Batman: Arkham Asylum [WBIE/Eidos Interactive, 2009) while drawing from original and published interviews with associated creative and executive personnel (including Hall) as well as from media industry trade and popular press articles.
I aim for this to serve as a case study that demonstrates how Time Warner has avoided the negative reception that usually meets licensed video games, or games that feature stories or characters adapted from pre-existing sources, such as film or television.
Batman: Arkham Origins represents the third installment in a celebrated game franchise that began with Batman: Arkham Asylum (WBIE, 2009). A licensed game that features the Batman IP of Time Warner’s DC Comics subsidiary, Arkham Origins is part of the larger Arkham transmedia franchise. Henry Jenkins has explained that transmedia storytelling involves carrying a cohesive narrative across multiple media platforms; Arkham, in particular, has weaved a single story through video games, comic books, and an animated film. My project studies not only the narrative connection between these texts but also the methods by which Time Warner has industrially organized their development.
My research builds from the field of media industries studies and triangulates political economy, ethnographic fieldwork, and textual analysis. This approach combines analyzing the discourse articulated in media industry trades with practitioner interviews and observations gleaned from interacting with media texts from WB and WBIE.
My project draws from a combination of media industries research in the area of licensed video games with industrial trade sources, particularly those featuring interviews with creative workers.
Students will read material from video game history, scholarly theory of games, and the trade and popular press. To contextualize these readings, weekly lab sections will provide the opportunity for screenings and video game play. In lab sections and outside of class, students will interact with games representing different eras of video game history and different aspects of the industry. Several guest speakers—including journalists, developers, and podcasters—will share their insights about the industry and culture of video games.
Students will explore these topics across required readings and screenings of feature films. Furthermore, recommended readings will help students develop their final papers by addressing additional dimensions of course topics. Writing assignments (both formal and informal) will call on students to apply their understanding of course concepts.
Students will explore these topics across readings and screenings of feature films. Furthermore, recommended readings will help students develop their unit papers by addressing additional dimensions of course topics. Writing assignments (both formal and informal) and presentations will call on students to apply their understanding of course concepts.
Students will explore these topics across readings and in-class screenings of feature films. Furthermore, recommended readings will help students develop their final papers by addressing additional dimensions of course topics. Writing assignments (both formal and informal) and exams will call on students to apply their understanding of course concepts.
Students will explore these topics across readings and in-class screenings of feature films, documentaries, and television programs. Furthermore, recommended readings will help students develop their unit papers by addressing additional dimensions of course topics. Writing assignments (both formal and informal) and presentations will call on students to apply their understanding of course concepts.