Somnolent

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says EA and Warner Bros. have missed out on $100 million in sales by deciding not to release a Dark Knight videogame alongside the $400 million box office smash movie.

While the Dark Knight movie has been breaking box office records and associated merchandise has been selling like hot cakes, EA, which has the rights to make a game based on the property, and franchise owner Warner Bros. have ensured that, for the first time in the film-franchise's history, a Batman movie has released without a videogame attached.

A Dark Knight game was in production at EA-owned Pandemic Studios, an EA manager told The Associated Press under terms of anonymity, while film star Gary Oldman said in a recent interview that he had seen a "tiny little piece" of the game.

According to the news agency, ‘Speculation about the cause for the disappearing act has included missed deadlines, Heath Ledger's death, questionable quality and poor sales projections.’

While EA’s 2005 Batman Begins game sold just 587,000 copies, according to NPD figures, videogame industry analyst Pachter told The AP that a Dark Knight game released at the same time as the movie could have sold four million units and generated $100 million, $70 million of which would have gone to the game's publisher and $30 to Warner Bros.

“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," he said.

“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.”

A Dark Knight game may still be in the works, but the EA manager who confirmed its existence said such a game isn't on the publisher’s release slate through March 2009.