Highlights
- Many successful movies in recent years, such as Toy Story 4 and Frozen, missed the opportunity to have tie-in video games for home consoles, which could have capitalized on their popularity and expanded the franchise.
- Even blockbuster movie franchises like The Avengers and John Wick have yet to receive proper tie-in games, leaving fans unable to play as their favorite characters in an interactive gaming experience.
- In some cases, such as The Dark Knight and Man of Steel, tie-in games were planned or expected but faced production issues or were ultimately scrapped, leaving fans disappointed and missing out on the chance to immerse themselves in the movie's world.
A common marketing strategy for movie studios in the 2000s was to release a tie-in game for home consoles to coincide with a huge film release. Not many of these games ever turned out to be any good due to a restricted timescale that existed to ensure that it was released at the same time as the movie and the fact that many of these movies had to keep key details under wraps during production. Despite this, the Xbox 360 and PS3 era of gaming still produced some great movie tie-in games.
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Unfortunately, the return on this marketing strategy seemed to cost more than it was worth, and the guaranteed movie tie-in game tradition has died off in recent years. As such, many huge blockbusters from the last few years have been left without a much-needed tie-in video game, which is a shame considering the potential.
8 Toy Story 4
When Toy Story 4 was released in 2019, many fans of the franchise were left scratching their heads about whether another Toy Story movie was necessary. However, that opinion soon changed when the film was met with great reviews and a huge box office return. Unfortunately, a tie-in game for consoles did not hit shelves as it should have.
All three of the previous Toy Story films received the video game treatment, the latter two in the series being lauded as some of the greatest movie tie-in platform games of all time. Sadly, Toy Story 4 missed this treatment, although the sprawling fairground seen in the movie looked like it was ripe for a platform game akin to its predecessors. Gabby Gabby and her unsettling team of ventriloquist dolls could even have made for a compelling boss fight toward the climax of the game.
7 Frozen
It was almost impossible to escape Frozen at the end of 2013 and much of 2014. The film reached over $1 billion at the box office and the soundtrack was everywhere. While a few mobile games were released to capitalize on this craze, Disney did not offer a proper tie-in game for consoles. This seems like a pretty big misstep considering the sheer amount of Frozen merchandise available at the time.
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Imagine a game where players must brave the frozen open-world snowscapes as Anna or the ice powers that Elsa could utilize during this exploration. Sadly, no game was released, and since Frozen 2 is already out, it doesn’t look like Disney or any other game developers will return to the potential left by the first movie.
6 The Avengers
It seems strange that there is no true Avengers game out to accompany one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, save for a Lego adaptation. Even stranger is the fact that all the MCU entries in the lead-up to the first Avengers movie all received their own tie-in game for consoles.
The truth behind this mystery is that a first-person brawler game featuring the Avengers was set to be released by THQ in 2012. The game had nothing to do with the blockbuster film and was instead based on the Secret Invasion storyline from the comic books. Sadly, a lack of funding caused THQ to cancel the project. Still, this does not explain why players are yet to receive a game where they can play as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, or Hawkeye in another Avengers movie tie-in.
5 John Wick
The first John Wick movie from 2015 was only meant to be a small release. As such, it makes sense that no tie-in game was planned. However, the John Wick franchise has since blossomed into a juggernaut, with multiple sequels and spin-offs exploring this dangerous world of assassins. Why then has there been no word of a tie-in game or even a series?
The John Wick franchise would lend itself nicely to a first-person shooter or a Hitman-esque stealth game. Developers could even make a bloody, action-packed brawler with gory kill animations. Sadly, no John Wick game is currently available on consoles.
4 The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is not just hailed as the best Batman film to date but is often described as one of the best movies of all time. So, why no tie-in game? Batman Begins received a tie-in game, and despite its flaws, was quite well-received.
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The Dark Knight was, in fact, set to receive a tie-in game in 2008 from Pandemic Studios. Sadly, a troubled production caused too many delays, so the game would not meet its intended release date. As a result, the $100 million project was scrapped. Fortunately, Arkham Asylum was released a year later to help cure Batman fans' wounds, but it would have been nice to see a direct movie tie-in nonetheless.
3 Dune
Dune is an odd property. The book is lauded as one of the greatest sci-fi stories of all time. Sadly, translating it to the big screen proved to be quite a difficult task. That was until Denis Villeneuve released his version of the epic in 2021. Now, Dune is a huge property.
As such, fans have come to expect a big-budget tie-in game based on this franchise. The old games that are based on the books are fun, sure, but with Dune now in the public consciousness again, it is time to give this franchise another chance on home consoles. Just imagine what it would be like to explore an open-world version of Arrakis.
2 The Force Awakens
Once the prequels wrapped up in 2005, many Star Wars fans never expected to see another film in the franchise. Fortunately, Disney was able to buy the rights to Star Wars in 2012 and set the sequel trilogy in motion with Episode 7: The Force Awakens.
While many view the sequel trilogy to be a disappointment, even more disappointing was the fact that no tie-in games were released to accompany each release. All the prequel movies have a video game, so it seems strange that Disney would miss out on the opportunity to rake in more money with a Triple-A tie-in game released alongside The Force Awakens. For now, fans of Star Wars will only ever be able to play through th saga in Lego form.
1 Man of Steel
While Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman film is lacking in action, the movie that came before had the opposite problem. Man of Steel was released in 2013 to mixed reactions. Many thought the movie showed a disregard toward human casualties in the action-packed finale, but it is this action that makes Man of Steel worthy of a video game tie-in.
Superman is one of the most recognizable superheroes on the planet, so a game sporting the legendary Superman symbol should have been an easy sell. In an era when Warner Bros and DC were eager to catch up to Marvel in the movie landscape, not releasing a video game to accompany the start of their new movie universe seems like a mistake in hindsight. Superman Returns got a tie-in game, and that movie had very little going on.