2006: the biggest year for video games based on movies

As part of a new feature, author and university professor Alexis Blanchet reveals that 2006 was the biggest year on record for video game film adaptations -- the most since the first was released in 1979. Blanchet tracked the releases published between 1979 and 2010. 2006 represents the peak. (1975 is included in the data thanks to Atari's arcade game Shark Jaws, which was developed as an intended adaptation of Jaws, though the company was unable to secure the license.) "Analyzing the number of simultaneous adaptations published per year brings out three distinct phases of activity: from 1975 to 1983, between one and four films per year gave rise to a simultaneous adaptation; from 1984 to 2001, the publication of simultaneous adaptations concerned on average a dozen films per year; and finally, since 2002, the average has exceeded 22 films per year," he writes. "The peak in 2006 corresponded to a significant increase in the number of films released that year: 601 films, compared with less than 490 on average over the last seven years," notes Blanchet. More movies = more film games, it seems, a logical extrapolation. "While we are witnessing an increase in the number of films adapted per year, it can also be seen that proportionally speaking, there is stagnation in editorial offering of this type of video game: from the early 1980s to the 2000s, adaptations represent a constant 10 percent of the editorial offering of a game platform," Blanchet writes. The full feature, which statistically analyzes the relationship between the game and film industries in great depth, is live now on Gamasutra.