The FMV Interval: The Long Dormant Period of Full Motion Video Games 1998-2015

This paper, authored by Scott Knight and Jakub Majewski, proposes the term "The FMV Interval" to describe the roughly two-decade period between the collapse of the full motion video (FMV) game boom of the 1990s and the genre's revival with Sam Barlow's Her Story in 2015. Its central argument is that FMV development did not disappear during this gap: the number of FMV releases fell sharply, but developers persisted with the format, and FMV continued to appear in cut-scenes within non-FMV games. The paper frames the late 1990s as the twilight of the classic era, citing the 1997 release of Riven and the 1998 release of Tex Murphy: Overseer as signs that FMV was losing its appeal, a shift reflected in industry sentiment that "FMV was dead and 3D was the future."

The authors trace several threads of continued activity across the period. These include the use of FMV to preserve franchise continuity and to accompany film-to-game adaptations such as Enter the Matrix (2003), the adoption of DVD technology for higher-quality video and interactive movies, and the efforts of former Trilobyte developers Rob Landeros and David Wheeler, whose later DVD-oriented titles had limited commercial success. The paper also notes that FMV production became more viable for smaller studios with the digital video revolution of the early 2000s, enabling low-cost productions and the Mystery Case Files hidden object series, alongside a nostalgia-driven wave of re-releases.

The study is a qualitative, game history analysis rather than a quantitative survey, drawing on a range of primary game titles and secondary scholarship on interactive movies, cut-scenes, and adventure games. Its temporal scope runs from 1992 through 2015, with a focus on PC, DVD player, and early mobile releases. The paper concludes that the interval ended as nostalgia, inexpensive video production, and crowdfunding converged, with Tesla Effect (2014) and Her Story marking the format's return.