Are Game Adaptations the Next Big Thing?

After the runaway success of last year’s The Last of Us on HBO, many fans are eagerly awaiting the second season. The story is already out in the wild, however, given that it’s an adaptation of a popular video game duology.

For a long time, video game adaptations have felt doomed from the ground up. It’s not difficult at all to point to examples of these attempts which have been met with critical failure, commercial failure, or both. So, what’s changed? Furthermore, is the success of The Last of Us indicative of a new wave of video game adaptations – a wave that is destined to be more successful?

Other Successes

Or is it an anomaly? Well, even if it’s the only one that you could point to as being successful, it still stands to reason that studio heads are going to be looking at it as an example of what’s possible. However, it’s not alone. The Super Mario Bros. Movie might not have been as critically successful, but it did very well commercially – well enough to have a sequel considered.

Elsewhere in the movie scene, you have the successes of Detective Pikachu and the Sonic the Hedgehog series – all instantly recognisable brands that did well at the box office. Cyberpunk Edgerunners was often considered part of the comeback story of the game itself, and the upcoming live action Fallout TV show has some of the same creative talent behind it as the well-received Westworld.

Upcoming

On that note, you might think about the upcoming slate of games that are confirmed as having adaptations in the works. Sony, which published The Last of Us game series originally, has jumped into this market with two feet – confirming that they have a live action adaptation of their story-driven God of War series in development.

Not every person who enjoys gaming will point to these as being representative of the genre, however. Some people like to unwind with strategy games that are much more about the moment-to-moment gameplay and player narrative than any preset story. Similarly, some people might prefer playing online slots UK, which have enthralling graphics and some narrative setup but don’t really have a large storyline. Therefore, while more game adaptations might be coming into the public eye, they might not be representative of the medium as a whole.

The Wider Trend

This isn’t necessarily something that’s unique to video games, however. Adaptations are part of a trend that has been popular in entertainment for a long time, as well as remakes which are somewhat more recent. However, while you might be used to seeing book adaptations making their way to film and TV, as with Dune or the Song of Ice and Fire series, video games might feel newer and somehow different. Part of this might be because as a medium, they are inherently unique from passive media, but it might also be that games are simply newer in their own right, having only recently been capable of the kind of storytelling that makes The Last of Us so adaptable.