Analyst: EA misses out on $100M USD by shelving The Dark Knight games

This year's motion picture adaptations of classic comic book franchises were unsurprisingly accompanied by licensed multiplatform video games, but the biggest one yet, "Batman: The Dark Knight", remains a glaring exception. The film, starring Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, enjoys critical acclaim and has shattered box office records by grossing over $400 million USD thus far. As it turns out, sources at Electronic Arts confirmed the publisher would eventually pass on the chance to release an official movie tie-in game. According to EA, there's still no plan to release a game based on "The Dark Knight" this fiscal year.

The decision is curious given that production for a licensed game was already underway at developer Pandemic Studios, and The Dark Knight actor Gary Oldman himself attested to viewing gameplay footage. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter also raised an eyebrow at EA's move given the runaway success of the motion picture itself, believing the publisher stood to have sold approximately 4 million copies of a licensed "Dark Knight" game... had it prepared one in time for the movie's original release. This could have translated into sales of $100 million USD ($30 million USD of which would have gone to licensee Warner Bros., and the rest going to EA).  To be sure, Pachter did not specify in what timeframe EA would have raked in such sales figures.

Pachter surmises the publisher had poor sales projections for its "Dark Knight" games, given the relatively poor reception of previous Batman film tie-in games:

"I think publishers have concluded the only games that work are the surefire $500 million box office kind of games like 'Spider-Man' and 'Shrek'. The 'Transformers' game really surprised people how well it did, but the movie was big. I don't think they expected 'The Dark Knight' movie to be this big."

Other rumours include longer-than-expected development time, missed deadlines, quality issues, and even Heath Ledger's death.  Warner Bros., Pandemic and EA have thus far issued no official comments.  In any case, who the heck underestimates the World's Greatest Detective?  Or the Clown Prince of Crime?