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Universal scales back game ambitions following Wanted flop

Movie tie-in sells poorly, prompting company to fall back on licensing IP

Universal Pictures is scaling back its internal videogame ambitions after its most recent movie tie-in flopped, according to a new report.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate, published by Warner Bros. and developed by the now defunct studio Grin, only sold 100,000 copies when released in March, missing out on the marketing campaigns for both the movie and DVD release of the Angelina Jolie film.

According to the LA Times, the studio still has its eye on the videogame market, but is being cautious following poor sales and the slowdown in the videogame market.

Following the departure of internal videogame guru Pete Wanat - who had previously produced games based on movies such as The Thing, The Chronicles of Riddick and Scarface - the majority of Universal licenses are being developed externally, although some original projects are in the early stages of development, said the report.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.