Executives at video game publisher THQ Inc. have said they want the Agoura Hills-based company to develop fewer games based on movie licenses and more from original content.
So why did THQ announce a big deal on Wednesday with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. to develop games based on the “Madagascar,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “Shrek” film franchises?
The reason, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securites Inc. in downtown Los Angeles who covers THQ, is because the company needs money to build up that desired original content. And the quickest way to make that money is to develop games based on popular movie properties.
“They have to grow revenue in order to generate the profits to fund new games,” Pachter said. “And these licenses are pretty safe bets.”
Games based on film licenses can be easier and quicker to develop because they don’t require an original storyline or content. But they also generate fewer profits because revenue must be split with the license holder.
The majority of THQ’s content has been based on licenses, and the license fees cut steeply into revenue. (Many of those games weren’t successful, either.) Earlier this year, the company announced a wholesale restructuring that included $220 million in cuts and the closing of several studios. That’s when THQ also announced it would focus more on developing original properties.
Pachter said the DreamWorks deal is sound, however, because other companies have already made successful games on those properties. The previous titles based on those franchises have sold around 1 million copies, and Pachter estimated THQ could make $60 million to $70 million in revenue from the DreamWorks agreement.
Game Faces
A local animation company has been getting a lot of face time with some of the top video game publishers in the business.
Image Metrics Ltd., a 60-employee company in Santa Monica, has animated the faces of countless video game characters, including those in “Assassin’s Creed II,” a highly anticipated game from Ubisoft Entertainment SA that was released two weeks ago.
The company has done work on feature films, including facial animations for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” But as video games have gained in popularity, they’ve become about 80 percent of Image Metrics’ business.
Typically, a character’s face is one of the hardest things for a game developer to animate because changes in facial expressions are subtle and complex, especially when a character is talking. Traditionally, developers bypassed the problem by having characters wear masks or helmets that completely or partially cover the face.
“Developers want to have realistic characters, but it’s so time-consuming, expensive and hard to make the face work, that they usually skip it,” said Michael Starkenburg, Image Metrics’ chief executive.
But these days it’s harder for a developer to justify a faceless hero. Enter Image Metrics, which has developed technology that allows animators to digitally re-create facial expressions.
When voice actors read lines for a video game, Image Metrics captures their expressions using a special camera. The company’s software then creates a 3-D model of what the entire face looks like as it reads dialogue.
The company’s animators then meld the 3-D model with the face of the video game character.
Penny Loafers?
An L.A.-based shoe Web site with some major star power behind it recently closed a $7 million fundraising round, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company, ShoeDazzle.com Inc., offers a staff of shoe experts to help match customers to footwear that fits their fashion style. Customers fill out an online survey and the company ships them five different pairs of shoes. Customers can return any of the shoes and pay to keep the ones they want.
What sets ShoeDazzle apart are the names behind it. The company lists model and reality TV star Kim Kardashian as one of its founders. It also lists celebrity attorney Robert Shapiro, perhaps best known as a member of O.J. Simpson’s criminal defense team, as a director. (Kim’s late father, Robert Kardashian, was another O.J. associate.)
The company did not disclose the source of the money or what it plans to do with it.
A representative from ShoeDazzle did not return a request for comment.
Shapiro also helped found LegalZoom.com Inc., an Internet company that specializes in legal documents and services.
Staff reporter Charles Proctor can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230.
