Majesco worries me sometimes

Majesco Entertainment is proud to announce that they will be releasing the first US/European Wrestling game for the Nintendo DS.

This in itself isn't a bad idea, wrestling games are on occassion decent. But what worries me about this story, is that Majesco has licenced the Nacho Libre rights.

So I know Jack Black is funny, or something, but what point does a publisher get to where they think, "hmm... Nacho Libre... that'll be a great game". I'm guessing the thought pattern went more along the lines of "hmm... Nacho Libre... those dumb bastards would pile into stores to buy our shit if we put a Nacho Libre sticker on the box... make it happen!".

Remember when games didn't need a movie based IP to be made? (see: Gradius, The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, Pong, Frogger)

Remember when a game sold well based on the quality of the game and not some preconceived notion of a movie? (see: Diablo, Starcraft, God of War)

So I understand the reasoning behind this. Cash cows are great for a company (I've worked on my fair share of them) but is this method of design just a fall back crutch for the industry? Independent IP's are the real brainchilds for creativity in the industry, and when we stifle ourselves by wedging our games within the confines of a licence ingenuity seems to take a back seat. When you stamp a box with a name (like Nacho Libre) the same number of copies of the game will sell, regardless of the quality, because people are buying the name, not the product, and coming from an old school gamer, that's sad.

\\drew