Disappointing Star Trek game "emotionally hurt" JJ Abrams
And "arguably" damaged the release of Into Darkness.
Star Trek director JJ Abrams was "emotionally hurt" by the franchise's recent disappointing video game tie-in.
Digital Extremes' spin-off used the likenesses and voices of the new film series' cast and told a story set between Abrams' excellent film reboot and its recent sequel Into Darkness.
Abrams initially worked with the game's developer, but pulled out after realising how the project would turn out.
"[It] was obviously a big disappointment to me," Abrams told GamerHub. "We were actually involved from the very beginning and then we sort of realised that it was not going in a place where we were going to get what we wanted, so we dropped out and they continued to do it despite... y'know," he trails off.
"To me the video game could have been something that actually really benefited the series and was an exciting, fun game with great gameplay and instead it was not.
"For me emotionally it hurt, 'cos we were working our asses off making the movie and then this game came out and it got, this isn't even my opinion, it got universally panned and I think that it was something without question that didn't help the movie and arguably hurt it."
Abrams is currently collaborating with Valve to bring Half-Life and Portal to the big screen, while also directing the return of a certain other sci-fi franchise.
"Too much of the game design is fighting against itself," Dan Whitehead wrote in Eurogamer's Star Trek review. Notably, he added, the "clever ideas subservient to generic structure, strong writing weighed down by clunky production, and rich combat held back by execution that never dares ask too much of the player."
