James Gunn's DCU Video Games Are Coming At The Best - And Worst - Time

16.01.2024 - 16:47 / screenrant.com / James Gunn / Ben Brosofsky / Best / James

The upcoming DC Universe media franchise helmed by James Gunn is going to include more than just movies, and the development of video games within the DCU sphere is coming at a particularly interesting time. DC already has a long history of video game adaptations, from the widely mocked to the celebrated titles. Considering the lack of any major games set in the recently concluded DC Extended Universe, there's not much precedent for the venture into DCU games, raising a lot of interesting questions about what the slate will look like.

The confirmation that games are currently in development comes directly from James Gunn, who gave only the briefest insight into what kind of DCU titles are being planned. The most significant clarification he offers is that the DCU titles will be AAA ventures, not just movie tie-ins. This should make the DCU games competitive with alternatives like the series in theory, although what ultimately comes of the venture in practice remains to be seen.

Video game development is typically a long affair, so it's unlikely that the DCU games confirmed to be on the way by James Gunn via his Threads account will be hitting store shelves anytime soon. Unless there's a big market revitalization in the near future, however, they're unlikely to arrive in a context that's as receptive to superhero content as it was just a few years ago. With a few notable exceptions, genre fatigue has been hitting hard at the box office. The enormous fall in profits from the first movie to its sequel is one major DC example of this waning relevance, and slapping a familiar superhero character on a product is no longer a reasonably sure method of guaranteeing success.

Superheroes aren't quite as oversaturated in modern video games as they are in movies, so the fatigue may not apply in quite the same way. Specifically attaching upcoming games to a film-oriented DCU umbrella, however, runs the risk of incurring a similarly disinterested reaction. There's some hope that the DCU will be able to reboot interest in DC's properties – and the sense that the wheels were coming off of the DCEU venture is certainly a major contributing factor to the lack of recent box office success – but it could still be something of an uphill battle.

Extending the idea of a connected universe to video games might also just be a bad idea in general. Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe saw a more consistently positive reception than the DCEU during its height, it's also suffered from waning interest, thanks in part to the exhausting demands for following continuity. Having to watch a streaming series to understand the context of a movie is a tall order, and the endeavor can start to feel pointless when the movie ends up being