I love my job. Everyonce in a while, I roam through upcoming movies' websites and look for online games. So far, I haven't done much more than casual research on this trend. I know that Flash games have been around on movie sites for a few years now. Generally, they are just there to add value, but usually no more than, say, a wallpaper or screen saver. Most of the times the quality of these games is sub-par and, as it is usual in advergaming, they feel rushed. I am not surprised at all, since I know what it is like to beg for information from a big corporation that is too busy to launch a project and considers webgames to be the less important part of its ecosystem.

Still, movie webgames are slowly getting better. I just checked the website for Spielberg's upcoming War of the Worlds film and I noticed that they have a special video trailer for their free webgame. That is unusual, even though I would not dare to say that this is the first time this is happening. The game is not yet available: a "coming soon" sign appears when you try to launch it. The game trailer is good and shows some shots of a high-production webgame (I mean, by webgame standards). I'll be definitively checking back on their site in a few weeks, just to try their game. And I am glad that webgames are becoming more pervasive, this only means more game jobs outside the AAA market. Small teams drive innovation. Sure, innovation in games will not come from movie sites, but I am sure that it will from smaller design houses, working for alternative markets such as advergaming.