Sony Wants to Make Even More Game Adaptations

While Sony itself has had something of an up-and-down approach when it comes to video game adaptations in the past–not everything can be a Last of Us (complimentary) or Uncharted (derogatory)–the studio isn’t letting its grip loosen on the Playstation catalogue any time soon. At CES this week, the studio announced a slew of new films and TV series to bring several of its gaming franchises to life.

During its press keynote for the Las Vegas electronics event last night, Sony revealed three new major projects between Playstation Studios and its various divisions–two movies, adapting the satirical sci-fi co-operative shooter Helldivers and Guerrilla’s  post-apocalyptic robo-dinosaur hunter Horizon: Zero Dawn (after an attempted Netflix series fell apart), and a new anime through Crunchyroll and Aniplex adapting the multiplayer element of Sucker Punch’s samurai open-world game, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, animated by Kamikaze Douga and set for release in 2027.

Little is known about the film projects–although much can be said of the circular nature of Sony, who owns the Starship Troopers movie rights, essentially making a movie adaptation of a game that asked “What if Starship Troopers was a multiplayer shooter?” to viral success last year–beyond the fact that they now exist. But they should come as no surprise given the growing Hollywood trend of looking to video games for source material, and the success (after years of failure) of adaptations like the Sonic movies or, as previously mentioned, Sony’s own success with HBO on The Last of Us. And even less of one from the viewpoint of the contemporary Playstation exclusive library, which has leaned on a cinematic-experience-driven narratives and aesthetics for a while at this point. Games became movies, and now games that became movies are becoming movies that were games. Understood?

After years of distrust-by-default–something that arguably still lingers, even in the face of successes big and small–will Sony’s all-in adaptive approach to its gaming franchises pay off? Time will tell, it’s likely going to be a good couple more years before we see or hear anything more substantiate about some of these projects. Plus, the studio already has the lofty, daunting expectations of its partnership with Nintendo to make a Legend of Zelda movie looming on the horizon. Maybe worry about that one first before we rummage even more deeply into the Playstation catalogue.

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