Warner's solution is to turn "Watchmen" into a series of downloadable episodic videogames. Two are already in the works from Danish developer Deadline Games, and if they're successful there could be more. Warner Bros. Interactive's senior VP of production and development Samantha Ryan says this model lets the studio make a game that's just as high quality as a AAA disc-based game ("complete with shaders and physics"), but have it done in time for the theatrical release by simply making it shorter (the second installment should come out with the DVD).

If "Watchmen" goes well, I think we can expect Warner and other studios to follow this example, since it's a good way to put out a game that takes advantage of the huge studio marketing spend on a movie release without putting out something that's embarrassing to the producers and ultimately harmful to the IP.

Me: Why make "Watchmen" into downloadable games? Is it simply a matter of time?

Samantha Ryan: What we're trying to do with "Watchmen" is create the best quality game that delivers the experience fans expect from what we believe to be a great movie and a great property. Rather than the more traditional "time is limited squeeze the puppy onto the market" route, we wanted to craft something that's the best possible game it can be. There's a great crossover between "Watchmen" fans and gamers. It's a hard core property and a hard core movie and a hard core game. A downloadable game allows us to deliver the experience that fans expect.

Me: So this is the same quality as an AAA game, but just shorter?

SR: It's not a 10 or 20 hour retail game. But it's a solid game experience for what it is and will be priced appropriately.