In a recent interview with IGN, Piotr Babieno the CEO of Bloober Team explained the developer’s recent Blair Witch project; at the time they also explained that they passed up on other IPs like SAW.
Bloober Team is a developer largely known for their horror titles like Layers of Fear and Observer: System Redux. So it comes as small surprise that the developer was approached by Lionsgate to make a game based on their IPs.
According to Babieno:
“Lionsgate came to us and said, ‘Guys, we love Layers of Fear. We saw what you are doing with Observer, so we would like to work with you. We know that you would like to do your own games, so please, this is our list of our horror IPs; choose one.’ We could [have chosen] Saw, which is more popular than Blair Witch, but we decided to take Blair Witch because the universe has many opportunities to build something new. That was the reason why we chose this project.”
Piotr Babieno (IGN)
Babieno goes on to explain that they’re regularly given offers to work with movies, but he found their requirements too stifling. They would either be required to tell a specific story, or to meet a certain launch date and functionally act as marketing for the movie, instead of a game developer.
The Blair Witch ended up being their choice due to the creative freedom offered to them by both the existing lore of the IP, and by Lionsgate themselves.
Although neither SAW or Blair Witch are strangers to video game adaptations, with both franchises having multiple titles under their belt. It makes one wonder what other IPs Bloober Team was offered by Lionsgate.
