Sometimes, it’s too easy. In the last two weeks, execs in both the network television and feature film industries have found a new boogeyman: Master Chief. While they’re (quite refreshingly) not blaming games for childhood obesity or antisocial behavior in teens, they are blaming sagging TV rating and a terrible weekend take at the box office on the launch of Halo 3. Wow. Just… wow. Where to begin?
There are actually people, who have jobs and desks and everything, that NEEDED TO FIND A REASON why you didn’t watch a half-hour show about the Cavemen from auto insurance commercials. 
Similarly, many film execs (who make decisions about how to spend billions of shareholder dollars) felt like they NEEDED TO EXPLAIN why nobody ran out to see either a movie where Ben Stiller gets caught in lots of embarrassing, painful situations (and his balls too! comedy!), OR a movie where academy award nominee former pro wrestler The Rock plays a pro quarterback who is forced to learn some (charming!) life lessons from a delightful scamp (Disney!) that he fathered out of wedlock.
I can almost understand why guys in network TV would be puzzled by low ratings for a new batch of crap and, in their blind search for answers, come up with Halo 3. After all, Americans have been breathlessly following karaoke like it’s a sport for a couple years, so clearly the definition of “quality entertainment” has slipped quite a bit. And they managed to keep the lights on after that year where Uncle Buck: the Show (that didn’t involve John Candy) debuted opposite Parenthood, the Series (that didn’t star Steve Martin), so shows about driving to work and child endangerment can’t be THAT bad, right? If nothing else, those TV execs know that Microsoft bought a – I believe the scientific term is “shitload”- of ad time for the launch.
It’s easier to call shenanigans on the movie execs though. It’s a pretty severe cop-out to say Halo 3 kept young males from seeing an R-rated comedy when Superbad had a monster opening weekend ($33,052,411) the same week that Madden ’08 came out, just a month earlier.
Ultimately, this all comes down to quality of content. Movie theaters didn’t go out of business every time a new Harry Potter book came out, and all the major TV networks outlasted major media events like the Death of Superman comics and the summer of 1977, when apparently everyone felt like they needed to see Star Wars multiple times. Perhaps if they put a better product out there, a well-done game like Halo3 wouldn’t seem like such a threat.
There WILL be more great games, and they’ll command every bit as much attention as Halo3. Hollywood had better come up with a better plan, because this industry isn’t going away.
