Soon to be gone are the days of making licensed titles for the sake of bringing properties to game platforms.

“Consumers are more discriminate when it comes to movie games,” Jonathan Warner told Playback Daily in Toronto in May, during the only Canadian stop of the promotional tour for Cars 2: The Video Game. The game launches June 21, ahead of the release of Cars 2 on the big screen on June 24.

The Disney/Pixar Cars franchise has racked up $2 billion in annual global retail sales since the initial movie’s release in 2006.

The Disney Interactive Studios-owned, Salt Lake City, Utah-based game developer worked closely with Pixar, which approved scripts and animations for the game to make sure they were creating an authentic experience. Voice actors from the movie also came to the Burbank studios to record lines specific to characters for the game, including Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy.

“You have to stay true to the franchise and characters,” explains Warner. “This is not a rip-off or a logo slap.”

Cars 2: The Video Game picks up where the soon-to-be-released film leaves off, integrating the spy themes from the film and creating the Cars-world equivalent to the CIA – international spy training center C.H.R.O.M.E., which does not appear in the film.

This title sees players taking control of a number of Cars characters and training to become top notch spies at the international spy training center.

Cars 2: The Video Game is also a PlayStation 3 exclusive, as it incorporates active shutter 3D technology that’s compatible with Sony’s 3DTVs. Warner notes that Avalanche had to develop new technology to handle 3D, which weren’t previously available when the gameco had worked on its last Pixar game title, Toy Story 3.

“We devoted a few more programmers to working on the 3D aspect,” says Warner of the company’s first 3D game. “It brings a visceral element to it, and really makes you feel like you’ve stepped into the environment to give it an extra level of interactivity.”