Some Killzone fans want to license the franchise from Sony.
As reported by PushSquare, the publishers of Killzine: A Killzone Fanzine, have shared an open letter on Twitter to PlayStation and Guerrilla Games to make this request. Of course, this was a response to a Guerrilla Games developer claiming that the studio was done with the franchise in a recent interview.
To sum up their main points, Killzine clarifies that they recognize how much more successful Horizon has been to their favorite video game franchise. So they are asking Guerrilla and Sony now, to confirm if they have future plans for Killzone games or spinoff media, such as novels, shows, movies, etc.
If Guerrilla and Sony don’t have any future plans, then:
“…we want to have an honest conversation about licensing the IP themselves. All we need to know is who to talk to.
We promise, we won’t disappoint. Six games and one novelization cannot be how it ends.”
It would be easy for us and others to make fun of Killzine for making this request. We won’t deny it sounds very similar to Super Smash Bros. fans who get asked by Masahiro Sakurai if they have made any video games, before they can tell him how to fix Smash.
But in this case, we are talking about a game that may have been retired or ended. And for those gamers who know the pain of pining for one of these retired franchises, we can empathize with that sentiment.
If we take this request seriously, though, the prospects are not necessarily great for it. Many games have seen revivals in recent years thanks to developers like Digital Eclipse and Nightdive Studios, but not every game and franchise is so lucky.
A particularly grim case is the story of TimeKillers. A fan project got some original staff involved, that snowballed into Embracer reviving the IP and even reforming the original studio, only to shut all of it down after their business went south.
But perhaps Killzine’s ambitions are more modest. It seems their interest is not necessarily in making new online games, to try to compete in this increasingly competitive market for live service titles.
Their interest in Killzone spinoff media suggests that they want a resolution to the franchise’s narrative. And they’re asking if Guerrilla and Sony are planning to make a show or movie, because that could bring the proper ending to the war between the ISA and the Helghast.
And really, maybe these fans have a point. It certainly feels like Killzone’s distinctly anti-fascist message should resonant and be more relevant more than ever, and as an artistic work and a part of popular culture, it needs to earn that resonance with a proper resolution that effectively communicates the message Guerrilla was trying to share.
Maybe, as it turns out, another online game was not the best platform for that. And if Sony isn’t making the Killzone movie to tell that story, the fans already know how to tell that story themselves.
