“NEED for Speed,” a movie adapted from a popular video game of the same name, is now playing at cinemas around the world. Following that, a series of similar movies including “World of Warcraft,” “Assassin’s Creed” and “Uncharted” are in the planning stages in Hollywood.

    Since the first game movie, “Super Mario Bros,” was released in 1993, adapting movies from video games have become irresistible to movie studios.

    According to Chinese media, production volume of the global game industry is now at US$64.9 billion a year, and that number is expected to go up to more than US$100 billion in three years.

    Due to the large market, it has become increasingly difficult to keep the filmmakers away from taking a risk to “dig the gold mine.”

    Just recently, Ubisoft Entertainment, one of the world’s top three video-game developers and publishers, set up a new film studio, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, specializing in producing video game movies and dramas.

    Led by Jean-Julien Baronnet, the former CEO of Europa Corp., the studio is expected to produce several movies adapted from games by Ubisoft this year. Popular games such as “Prince of Persia,” “Call of Juarez” and “Assassin’s Creed” are all on the preferred list.

    In fact, Ubisoft already started its expansion into the movie sector in 2007. In 2010, its movie, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” jointly produced with Walt Disney Studios, made US$335 million at the box office, significantly more than similar game-based movie series “Tomb Raider” and “Final Fantasy.”

    However, despite several big successes, video game-based movies are typically reviewed as “worst movies” due to lack of innovation and bad quality.

    “It is very difficult to balance the movie stories and the game styles. Sometimes, a movie may be well-received among game fans, but other audiences may find it confusing if they know nothing about the game,” an unidentified filmmaker said.

    (Wang Yuanyuan)

    ‘Resident Evil’

    The movie series “Resident Evil” is a film series based on the Capcom video games of the same name. The series had a box office take of about US$900 million from 2002 to 2007.

    As one of the best-known horror games of all time, the game had wide influence among game players around the world. Although the movie adaptions changed almost all the details and styles of the game, the movies still had big success among game players and other audiences. A sixth installment is planned for a 2015 release date.

    ‘Super Mario Bros’

    “Super Mario Bros” is considered the first video game-based movie, adapted from the 1985 Nintendo video game of the same name. Released 1993, it had a box office take of about US$20 million.

    The movie just “borrowed” the characters from the game. It was just another science fiction adventure comedy created by Hollywood, and the adaption was just to “attract audiences.” However, the movie was still a big hit due to the large number of “Super Mario” fans.

    ‘Final Fantasy’

    “Final Fantasy” is a movie series adapted from the roleplaying video game developed and published by Square Enix. It recorded a total box office take of more than US$100 million from 2001 to 2005.

    Although it attracted wide attention when it was released 2001, the movie series was commonly seen as a commercial failure. “Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals” was poorly received, and the box office failure of “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” led to the merger between Square and Enix. The series did not have a successful movie until “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children,” which ultimately won several awards and sold over 2.4 million copies within a year.