We have started seeing more TV and film adaptations based on popular video games. Years ago, when these adaptations were released, they were a shell of what made the IP so beloved. However, that changed, and we saw series like The Last of Us come out and deliver massively. Today, a new interview featuring Sony Interactive Entertainment CEOs about what’s to come from PlayStation has emerged.
Variety spoke earlier this month with Sony Interactive Entertainment CEOs Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino. During their conversation, the topic of adaptations came up and shows like The Last of Us and Twisted Metal were doing well. We know there are other projects in the works, but it seems like more announcements should be coming our way.
Hermen Hulst noted that The Last of Us on HBO really became the game changer. It showed there was credibility for adapting these games to a television series. A lot was learned from that production, such as the importance of involving the original creators. That brings in an element to ensure authenticity to the production. However, there are more than a few projects in the works that Sony is eager to announce.
The Last of Us” HBO series has been a game changer in terms of the credibility of adaptations from games to television series. We learned a lot from that. We learned that it’s really important to involve the original creators to ensure that your experience remains very authentic. As the teams stay involved, we’re applying these kind of learnings across the board. At PlayStation productions, we have 10 productions now in the works: “The Last of Us,” “Twisted Metal,” a few others that we’re very excited about. I think going forward, we will become increasingly meticulous and rigorous about our franchising.
So we’re talking about adaptations, but in adaptations, that’s taking the game and then see what else you can do with it. We’re actually looking to build from the ground up — as we tried to do originally with “Horizon,” in creating this world and creating this storyline — and how can you tell stories in this world on various mediums? And so we’re setting up franchise teams and portfolio management teams to work with teams to do that properly and find different ways to tell stories in the worlds that we’re creating. – Hermen Hulst
While we don’t know everything PlayStation Productions has in the works, it seems that there are ten productions in total now. So, we should see more adaptation announcements soon. But beyond that, it looks like the focus for these productions is not just on telling a storyline we’ve already seen played in video games. Instead, we could see more stories emerge from within these worlds, which Hermen noted was something they were trying to do originally with Horizon.
