06-02-2024, 02:00 AM
(05-02-2024, 07:27 PM)JAS84 Wrote: I'm not sure a video game would work well. There was an American Gladiators one in 1991 (before the UK show started, so it kept the US branding even in the UK), and well, it's generally regarded as poor. There's never been another attempt since.
en.wikipedia.org
There were limits as to what could be achieved with video games in 1991. Maybe there could have been a game for the PS1 in 1995 but by then because of the new tech it was the case that good games took years and serious money to develop instead of being something knocked up on the cheap in a couple of months. I'm not sure the marketing team behind Gladiators would have wanted to commit to that at a time the show had peaked and people had moved on from the merch (including board games) they already owned. Nowadays, a similar uncertainty over the future of the show makes a video game, a full-blown one at least, unlikely. There's also more profit in producing T-shirts, hats etc.
I don't think a lot of the tie-in games back in the day did much other than promote the film or TV show, which were making enough money on their own anyway that it didn't matter if the games flopped, but companies started to become more particular over who they were handing out the licensing rights to to produce product because of the bad PR.