I still remember the first time I played, “Last Action Hero” on my old Super Nintendo system. I was thinking, “Wow, the movie wasn’t that great but here is a game where I can be Schwarzenegger! How can they screw that up!” and well, they did. Video games based on movies have never been good. That has been the thorn in the video game players’ sides since the early days of video games. I don’t care who you talk to, the ET video game for the Atari 2600 made no since what so ever! Wow, his head goes up and down. Is that it?

If the death of video games based on movies is coming, let me be the first person to welcome it’s downfall. Nothing good has ever come from it, and I doubt anything ever will.

A few years ago, Warner Bros. sold the video-game rights to its film series The Matrix, a heady science-fiction trilogy starring Keanu Reeves, for $10 million, according to industry reports.

So when it came time for Warners to sell the game rights to Constantine, the new fantasy movie also starring Reeves, the studio might have expected a similar windfall. Instead, the rights went to a small developer, Bits Studios, for less than $1 million.

The difference between the two deals is just one example of how unpredictable - and at times unprofitable - the game publishers’ relationship with Hollywood has become. Five years ago, the studios looked at video-game royalties as a growing source of revenue as well as a source of promotion, while gamemakers saw movies as a way to stand out on store shelves.

But blockbuster movies have not always made for blockbuster games, and many gamemakers are weighing licensing deals far more carefully.

While games based on Spider-Man 2 sold more than 2.5 million copies in the United States, according to the NPD Group, which tracks sales, games based on Catwoman sold fewer than 150,000, and even games based on such moderately successful films as The Hulk have fared poorly. Conversely, the Xbox game based on The Chronicles of Riddick received good reviews and sold fairly well even though the film was considered a box-office disappointment.

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