As the video game industry gets more popular (and more profitable) with each passing year, so do Hollywood's insatiable hunger and shadow rapidly expand over it. It appears that every popular IP eventually gets its own film or TV adaptation, and a logical question arises as a result: Are they really necessary?
Whether we like it or not, adaptations of games are on the rise
Just recently, we were notified of two major adaptations of established video game IPs, to be handled by A24 and Blumhouse in the form of the Elden Ring and Phasmophobia films.
The first one is supposedly being made in collaboration with Elden Ring's publisher Bandai Namco, who has been hellbent on making Elden Ring as big of a franchise as it can be from the very moment it was announced.
Phasmophobia hasn't had that much of a franchising drive behind it, nor was it as big as Elden Ring, but it seems that it was big enough to warrant a horror flick from a studio known for churning out countless semi-decent or borderline horrible films in the genre.
And these aren't the only (recent) examples. Until Dawn got adapted into a movie with nearly no one from the original cast in it, nor any semblance of the source game's story. The Last of Us TV show, made by the titan HBO, got its second season and, as a polar opposite to Until Dawn, stuck to its source material too closely and lost over half of its viewership as a result. The former has a 5.8 rating on IMDB, but still seemed to make back its money, which is something at least.
Video game movies have been a fact of life ever since the gaming industry started climbing the ranks of profitable entertainment ventures, attaining a sour reputation in the early years for being too cheap or too bad or oftentimes both.
Then they largely stopped for a while before making a comeback, with some success stories along the way.
Hollywood and other media saw the success of gaming and wanted a piece
Film adaptations of games always appeared to me as one industry's encroachment into the territory of another. Corporate interests trying to cover as much ground as possible and merge two forms of media that don't usually mix very well.
The average cinemagoer isn't necessarily a player, nor can the experiences beloved by gamers be replicated in a medium that is by definition not interactive.
We can also see these constant, unbearably annoying encroachments via events like the Summer Game Fest or The Game Awards, both of which are often hosted and attended by Hollywood stars who don't know anything about gaming.
Creating video game movies, TV shows, and anime series is mere marketing to sell more of [insert product] and never provide actual value to the fanbase.
Because remember: more is always better in the eyes of Hollywood executives, and the more people engaged with a product, the happier they are. It takes the focus away from what made any given gaming IP popular in the first place—the game—which, by the sheer nature of things, can never be the same as any on-screen adaptation.
So, to answer the question bluntly: no, video game adaptations are not necessary. More games are necessary. More good games, even more so. Franchising can still work and be done without having to go into other media and other audiences.
Even on the rare occasions we do get solid adaptations, like say the Fallout TV show or Cyberpunk Edgerunners, it's usually something so far removed from the originals that it sort of becomes its own thing, wearing an "I was a video game once!" badge.
The same can be said of vice-versa endeavors, but while screen adaptations of games take away from the experience, adapting a flick (such as the Indiana Jones movies) into a game can do wonders and add more depth, interactivity, and connection to the world.
Even so, let movies be movies, and let games be games. Target audiences exist and need to make a return as a concept, since not everything has to be for everyone and cover every medium in existence.
What do you think, dear readers? Should adaptations continue to be made, and are they really a necessary thing given how big gaming already is? Let us know below.
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