The videogame movie tie-in introductory paragraph has been written ten thousand times in the last ten years. ‘They all suck!’, ‘Why do developers continue to do this!’, ‘ Publishers should be told they can’t get away with this irresponsible money-laundering!’ ‘All except Goldeneye of course!’

It’s videogame critics’ Pavlovian response except, of course, there’s a lot more to the issue than those broad brush stroke, lazy touch-points. So here’s a critique of The Golden Compass movie tie-in (a videogame I’ve never before seen a publisher so loathe to send me) that is also a review of the wider issues of the genre. I hope you enjoy it.

While no doubt some critics relish the chance to tear into a development team’s latest creation with a firework display of cruel adjectives and poisonous put-downs, games journalists should always be reminded that behind every shoddy release there are many man years’ worth of hard work, unpaid overtime and neglected families.

Nobody but nobody sets out wanting to make a bad game. When you’ve tried your best with the limited resources, assets and time available, carefully balancing your design ideas with a movie studio’s agenda in a precarious compromise, rushing against all odds to get your game out on the same day as the movie, having some oblivious critic gleefully walk all over your efforts must sting. Imagine being asked to create a game that identically follows the events and aesthetics of a film that hasn’t even been shot yet? It must be development purgatory. So, before we get started, know this SEGA and Shiny: we understand. We sympathise.

But we also remember that on the other side of this sorry equation sits Timmy, a twelve-year-old 360 owner hoping for Skate or PGR4 this Christmas. His mother, nervous about videogame stores and their sweaty clientele and chunky staff, instead walks into Woolworths, scans the shelves for a suitable present for her son and settles, naturally enough, on the warm familiarity of The Golden Compass. He liked the book and she’s seen the film’s advertisements on the side of the bus and, besides, it’s got Nicole Kidman and James Bond in it, so it must be good, right? She doesn’t know how these things work. She doesn’t know the rules and little Timmy will have a rotten Christmas because of it.

The development team and Timmy: two very different people at either end of this game’s life, experiencing curiously similar feelings of frustration and letdown. When it comes to videogames of movies, nobody wins. At least, nobody Eurogamer cares about.

You can read the rest here.