 | Digital Release | Digital release dates and platforms |
| Delisting | Exact or Approximate date of delisting | |
| Developer | Developer | |
| Publisher | Publisher | |
| Available On | Anywhere the game may still be available, digital or retail | |
| Links | Live and archived links with relevant information |
Delisting
Lionhead Studios announced on November 7, 2008 that they would be shutting down the website and all online services for The Movies on December 5th. The Movies was delisted from Steam between December 06 and December 17, 2008. Lionhead’s announcement follows:
After three years, almost two million visitors and over a years worth of unique movies posted (that’s 33025270 seconds), Lionhead Studios feels it’s time for the final curtain to come down on The Movies Online.
The number of new movies posted and traffic visiting the site has dropped to a level that means it is no longer viable to keep the site operating. Therefore the site will shut down on 5th December 2008. With specialist sites such as The Movies Underground – http://www.tmunderground.com/ and Machinima.com – http://www.machinima.com/channel/view&id;=2 Lionhead believes that the diehard movie maker will still be able to find many other outlets to display their work – as well as being able to upload to sites such as MSN video (http://video.msn.com).
In announcing the closure of the site Mark Webley Lionhead’s Development Director, who headed up The Movies team said “The Movies Online has shown how much creativity and originality there is amongst gamesplayers. The Movies helped create movies like The French Democracy which attracted world-wide media attention. But three years on, would-be film makers now have many more outlets for their creativity which also attract a wider audience. So we have taken the difficult decision to close The Movies Online. We‘d like to thank everyone who has posted a movie or visited the site over the past three years”.
Curtain Comes Down – Lionhead PR
After the closure of The Movies Online, the website was updated to serve as a post-mortem of the service, with several of the site’s most renowned movies and player comments being noted. The Movies may have been delisted due to an expired publishing agreement between Activision and Lionhead after Microsoft’s purchase of Lionhead in 2006, but it was more likely that the decreased usage of The Movies Online over the years led to Lionhead discontinuing further support for the title. The game remains available on physical media.
About the Game
Egos. Money. Blockbusters. Welcome to Hollywood.
With The Movies, you can make it big in Hollywood by building the ultimate movie studio and shooting the ultimate picture. Choose a script and turn it into a major release. Pick or create actors and locations. Control budgets, build sets, hire and fire at will, settle into the director’s chair and film a hit.
Customize unique movies within the game, then watch and review them, adding your very own voiceover or sound effects and saving them to your hard drive. Upload your masterpieces to the web or post them on The Movies’ official site for the world to see and vote on in online awards ceremonies.
Just as you can create or modify unique films, you can create or modify actors, customizing their look and renaming them to resemble anyone you wish. Anything you’ve ever read about Hollywood — from starlet scandals to broken box office records — is right here in The Movies.
- From nobody to mogul – Become a mega-rich studio honcho, calling all the shots and hiring and firing at will. Will you ignore the stars’ tantrums? Will you give in to their monstrous egos and allow them to fall in and out of love, gain weight or get plastic surgery? Or will you show them who’s boss by ruining careers, crushing dreams and putting yourself first?
- From pitch to premiere – Handpick the scripts you want to greenlight, watch them being shot or direct the movies yourself.
- Make the films you love to watch or create brand new masterpieces. Innovate with new technological advancements or let other studios make the investment and ride their coattails.
- From flops to runaway hits – Make comedies, action films, war movies, romances, sci-fi flicks, horror films or anything you choose. Different genres at different times attract different audiences, so are you after a box office smash or is pleasing the critics and winning awards more your scene?
- Anything is possible with The Movies – Ultimately, you’ll be judged by the movies you make. Will you be brave enough to put your movies on the web or share them with friends? Will your movies pick up a nomination and win you a real award? Will this game launch you into an actual movie career? Studio power broker, talent spotter or film director – you can be one or all three. That’s the magic of The Movies.
- Two sides of Hollywood, two modes of gameplay – In Sandbox Mode, you can focus exclusively on making movies. In Story Mode, your objective is to build your own studio from the ground up by starting with an empty lot. Now it’s your chance to find out if you have what it takes to make it in Hollywood.