2. There Not Being A Single Good Movie Tie-In Whatsoever
This still plagues the industry obviously but games of old that were based on movies and telly shows were naught but quick cash grabs and were truly, truly awful and that fact cannot be stressed enough. The best example is of course the very famous Atari 2600 game "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial", produced in five weeks by respected programmer Howard Warshaw, only to sell so badly it took down Atari. Most people know that the ET game cartridges ultimately ended in a landfill covered in concrete but it was worse than that - the bean counters decided they had a winner just based on the movie name and produced more game cartridges than Atari consoles had actually been sold. Let's let that sink in for a minute... the powers that be at Atari thought the atrocity that was ET would actually sell their system better than their system sold their system. Anything and everything that came out, be it TV, movies or radio shows, had a terrible game associated with it. Sure some themes definitely lent themselves better to a game spin off - Robocop, The Terminator, Commando etc could have spawned a good game if done right but other niche choices were bizarre. A video game based on hit comedy TV sitcom "Alf" for example... How would that work? It didn't. Whilst game/move tie ins still exist and many of them are still terrible, they're not so bad that they take down multi-billion dollar companies.
A Welsh semi-retired television producer and actor known for low end work that astonishingly people actually watched and even garnered some awards. Originally residing in the electrically-challenged Amish areas of Pennsylvania he has written a few books (Hollywood Pants and Hollywood Horrible Hints and Terribly Fake Tips vols 1 & 2) which you can buy on amazon and all great book stores.
After a brief stint in Australia he now finds himself back in the Welsh valleys of his home country noting that it hasn't changed a bit!
