Agents aim to be video game players
 
Biz's invisible creatives are proving tough to ink
 
By DANA HARRIS

 
The videogame biz is worth billions and, naturally, agents want a piece of the action. But what kind of action is there to get?

There's the obvious stuff, such as clients who lend their voices to characters or licensing vidgames to the movie studios. But the real money would seem to be in repping the industry's creatives -- the developers, producers and programmers responsible for making the games.

There is, however, a significant sticking point.

"There is a technical component (to gaming) that does not allow individuals to move back and forth (between companies)," said Rob Sebastian, managing director of games and technology at Endeavor. "I think entire creative production teams can be represented if they aren't exclusive to any given publisher. However, most teams are internal. There's no play in that scenario for an agency."

Fans are fickle

It's also hard for agents to build stars when the vidgame culture has limited interest in their creation. Fans are notorious for fickle and demanding tastes satisfied solely by the actual game experience.

"The idea of an 'opening weekend' is not the same," said the William Morris Agency's Cody Alexander. "Word of mouth and reviews are more important (than individuals), and game reviews (can be) much more biting and acidic."

In fact, with rare exceptions like "Sid Meyer's Civilization," you won't find the names of individual creatives on game boxes, only inside the user's manual.

While the argument can be made that anonymity merely represents the culture's lack of interest in a star system, others wonder if it's intended to block its creation. Agents make the comparison to the early days of the studio system, when writers and directors were kept under contract and their contributions were downplayed in the films' credits.

One of the first chinks in that system came when Alfred Hitchcock, who was under contract to Warner Bros. Pictures, made his CBS television deal for the series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

Limited to salary

It's a scenario CAA compares to one pending for "Sims" creator Will Wright. The vidgame series has earned north of $600 million for publisher Electronic Arts, but Wright's participation was limited to his contracted salary. Last summer, Wright signed a first-look development deal with Fox Broadcasting Co. to develop projects for the network.

"Game companies are realizing that they're entertainment companies, not software companies," said CAA gaming agent Seamus Blackley, the jazz pianist-turned-physicist who later became one of the creators of the Xbox and now is an agent. "They're forced to recognize the creatives. Who cares how many bitmaps per unit time?"

By releasing their employees from the golden handcuffs of exclusive employment contracts at the gaming studios, the argument goes, companies can benefit from a free exchange of ideas, creatives can become gross players and agents can take their 10%.

"We're all talking about taking these creatives and exposing them to other opportunities," said CAA's Larry Shapiro.

Skills in demand

With developers responsible for creating 30 hours of storyline in a single game, Shapiro said, opportunities aren't hard to find. He says when gaming creatives meet with traditional entertainment producers, "The reaction is, 'My God, are there more of these people?' "

Sebastian says he sees opportunity in taking a Hollywood director like John Woo and putting him in a room with game creators. "In those scenarios," he said, "really great content is born."

Still, there's a cautionary note from the company that preceded all Hollywood talent agencies with its plan to rep the creatives of the gaming business. El Segundo-based gaming management shingle R.E.D. (Representing Entertainers & Developers) launched in 2001, intent on focusing on developers, producers and programmers.

'Project-driven industry'

Co-owner Jeff Brunner said R.E.D. now centers its representation efforts not on individuals but on established gaming studios.

"We thought we'd try to identify the key guys and sign them up, but it's too project-driven an industry," he said. "Hits are driven by a lot of factors other than the individual. There's not this director status and actor status with the game companies. There's no auteur theory."

However, Brunner added, "I think it will get there, eventually."