Prestige Games

[Erik_Twice]

It's undeniable that there are many oscar-bait movies. They are not done for art's sake, they are done to try to create a reputation for the director, actor or studio. It's an investment, you flop once to later add "From the award-winning director" to all the films you make after that. That doesn't make all award-bait movies bad, in the same way that blockbusters are not bad because they are blockbusters.

In answer to the OP, the reason why there are no games like this is because there's no reputation to create. There are no valued critics around, you only have IGN and IGN has a blockbuster mentality, if it's "big" it's good if it isn't, it's crap.

There's also no easy way to create an award bait in videogames. For movies you just need jews, women being beaten, ecologism or mentally handicapped people. They are oscar-bait topics. Since the critics have blockbuster mentality the only award bait is another blockbuster.

I wouldn't call award bait movies "prestige movies". The former tries to be the latter because what gives prestige is not quality. Comedies and animation won't give you prestige, for example.

[J T]

I think some of the HD releases of games like Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, and Beyond Good & Evil sort of fit the bill for prestige game releases.

Gamers have come up with some pretty brilliant "Criterion Collection" game covers. I'd like to see the industry use some of these in re-releases.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/04/gam ... or_cri.php