This fall, the heroes of comics are leaving their boxes to squat the screens and especially the consoles. Not the heroes of comics or manga, for example with games Guardians of the Galaxy and Demon slayer, but heroes from home. The Smurfs with Mission Malfeuille October 26, Marsupilami and the Secret of the Sarcophagus November 16 and, finally, Asterix & Asterix & Obelix: Slap them all! Next Thursday, no less than three games adapted from Franco-Belgian comics will be released in the space of a few weeks, all from the same publisher, Microids.
In good memory of the Infogrames games
Unmissable in the French video game landscape for almost 30 years, the company is known for its original creations such as Syberia or Still life, but also for its use of existing licenses such as Fort Boyard, Agatha Christie and therefore comics. Its current CEO, Stéphane Longeard, worked with the Infogrames studio, which in the 1990s developed some of the most famous adaptations of comics in games with The Smurfs, Spirou, lucky Luke Where Tintin in Tibet.
“I then created my Anuman Interactive box, which was bought by Media Participations in 2009, then we bought Microids to support the group’s development in digital and see what could resonate in video games. ”It should be remembered that Média Participations is the fourth largest editorial group in France, with the houses of Dargaud, Dupuis, Le Lombard, Lucky Comics…
Big licenses and classic gameplays
If it is easier to adapt its “house” comic book heroes, Microids has established historical relationships with rights holders, and even competitors, such as Hachette for Editions Albert René, IMPS for the Smurfs and even Moulinsart for Tintin, which a new game is currently in development. “Making a comic costs between 50,000 and 100,000 euros, but for a video game, add a few zeros”, comments Stéphane Longeard. From one to seven million euros in budget. “We therefore need very large licenses, with an international aura, and deploy them over the long term, not on a single game.”
The type of game, the gameplay, is also important, and the president of Microids assumes not to “reinvent hot water”: “You need what I would call classics, gameplays that have proven their worth. Inventing a new concept is a risk-taking that is not always possible with certain licenses. Our game Smurfs and its suction system have been compared to Luigi’s Mansion. Like a review. But me, it suits me well to be compared to the benchmark. “He also puts forward budgets without common measure,” two million euros for Mission Malfeuille ten times more for Luigi’s Mansion. A price that can be found on the shelves, with ours at 30-40 euros and Nintendo at 70 euros ”.
A matter of time and trust
Microids games are also, in a way, derivative products and part of an ecosystem reminiscent of those of Disney. “ Marsupilami is a license that had an international aura with the Disney animated series 25 years ago, explains Stéphane Longeard. The new game accompanies a recurring comic, the Spirou amusement park, and a new animated series coming soon. “He adds that to convince the rights holders, Microids can come with a dozen concepts under the arm, but that everything is above all a question of trust and time:” Moulinsard, it took ten years, but once signed with them , the game is rather easy to produce ”. It was the same with the Japanese for the future game Grendizer, announced for 2023.
The last Asterix & Obelix: Slap them all! plays both on the field of comic book adaptation and retro revival, since it revisits the cult game Asterix of Konami from 1992, again a bias assumed by Stéphane Longeard who quotes Dotemu’s work with Street of Rage 4 and the next one Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. “It’s about finding the alchemy between licenses and gameplays,” he concludes, recalling the upcoming returns to Microids from Joe & Mac, Arkanoid Where Flashback.