Warner Bros. tiers its video game agreements

Doing its bit to evolve royalty negotiation in the video game realm, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment instituted a tiered royalty system earlier this year, effectively putting the discussion of game quality on the table with its interactive licensees. Critics and gamers alike have traditionally viewed licensed video games as inferior to original games, and the properties attached to poorly reviewed titles have often suffered as a result, says senior VP Jason Hall. The tiered system's mastermind, Hall is looking to put an end to the second-class citizenship of licensed games. Under WBIE's new system, licensees are penalized for failing to devote the same financial and creative resources to developing games based on Warner movies as they do their proprietary titles.