''The Movies'' is a

business simulation game Business simulation games, also known as economic simulation games

created by

Lionhead Studios Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson (British game designer), Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the ''Black & White (series), Bl ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and ported to

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

Feral Interactive Feral Interactive is a British video games developer and publisher for macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows platforms. It was founded in 1996 to bring games to Mac and specialises in porting games to different ...

. Players run a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

, creating films that can be exported from the game. ''The Movies'' was released in November 2005 to positive reviews and several awards, but sold poorly. An expansion, ''The Movies: Stunts & Effects'', was released in 2006.

Gameplay

''The Movies'' allows players to run their own movie studio, including designing the studio itself and managing the careers of film stars. The game starts at the birth of cinema and continues into the future. Players can create their own movies using in-game assets and at one time could upload them to the game's website The Movies Online.

Development

Lionhead Studios co-founder

Peter Molyneux Peter Douglas Molyneux (; born 5 May 1959) is an English video game designer and programmer. He created the god games '' Populous'', ''Dungeon Keeper'', and '' Black & White'', as well as ''Theme Park'', the ''Fable'' series, '' Curiosity: W ...

came up with the original idea and development began in February 2002. An early version of the game was ready to show to journalists at the

European Computer Trade Show The European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) was an annual trade show for the European video game industry which first ran in 1988, the last event being held in 2004. The exposition was only open to industry professionals and journalists, although it w ...

in September 2002. The game was released in November 2005 and by the end of the year had sold above 50,000 copies in the United Kingdom, a number that

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

's Kristan Reed called "relatively minor". The game ultimately received a "Silver" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the region. The soundtrack for the game was composed by

Daniel Pemberton Daniel Pemberton (born 3 November 1977) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning English composer and songwriter. Life and career In 1994, at the age of 16, Pemberton recorded his debut album, ''Bedroom'', on a multitrack cassette recor ...

''Stunts and Effects'' expansion pack

In June 2006, Lionhead studios released the

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or an ...

''The Movies: Stunts and Effects''.

ported the expansion to

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...

in 2008. The expansion added stunts and stuntmen, new special effects, fewer camera placement restrictions, and expanded environments and clothing options.

Reception

Review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the PC version a score of 84 out of 100 ("Generally favorable reviews") based on 62 reviews from critics. The first review was published by

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

, which gave the game a 3.5 out of 5. Metacritic gave the expansion, ''The Movies: Stunts & Effects'', a score of 78 out of 100 based on 37 reviews from critics. ''

Computer Games Magazine ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' gave ''The Movies'' their 2005 "Best Utility" and "Best Original Music" awards. The game won the best simulation award at the 2006

BAFTA Video Games Awards The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive En ...

Looking back at the game in 2015,

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

said that it had promising features but failed to deliver on them. In 2016, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called ''The Movies''s online service " rhaps the most forward-thinking feature" because it pre-dated

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

by a year.

Use in machinima

Using ''The Movies'', Alex Chan, a French resident with no previous filmmaking experience, took four days to create ''

The French Democracy ''The French Democracy'' is a 2005 English-language French short political film made by Alex Chan using computer animation from Lionhead Studios' 2005 business simulation game ''The Movies''. The plot centers on three Moroccan men who turn to ...

'', a short

machinima Machinima, originally machinema () is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''ma ...

political film about the 2005 civil unrest in France.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Movies, The 2005 video games Activision games Animation software Business simulation games Feral Interactive games Filmmaking video games Interactive Achievement Award winners MacOS games Lionhead Studios games Video games scored by Daniel Pemberton Video games set in the 20th century Video games set in the 2000s Video games with expansion packs Windows games RenderWare games BAFTA winners (video games) D.I.C.E. Award for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year winners Video games developed in the United Kingdom Multiplayer and single-player video games