Streaming Is a Great Home for Video Game Adaptations
A few days ago, GameSpot dug up some interesting information within the LinkedIn profile of Activision Blizzard Studios co-president Nick van Dyk. Van Dyk touts the series he’s trying to develop from within Activision Blizzard’s media entertainment division. We already knew that a Call of Duty film and television universe was supposedly forthcoming, but we didn’t know that the “Blizzard” side of the company was contributing too. The profile points to series based on Overwatch and Diablo as well.
The Diablo show gets the most color, as “a TV adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s IP, rendered in anime style”. Apparently, the show is in pre-production through Netflix. An animated series based on Overwatch has apparently been “developed and sold”, but no production or distribution studio was listed.
On paper, both are great ideas. Over the years, Blizzard’s franchises have benefited from very strong promotional cinematics. They’ve been so well-received that fans have repeatedly asked why Blizzard doesn’t just make television shows and movies on its own. The answer is likely that those cinematics are prohibitively expensive and Blizzard is busy making games, not movies.
But letting someone else make cheaper animated shows, overseen by Blizzard’s keepers of lore? There’s room there to make that work. In fact, it’s already worked well in the form of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. That spinoff of the Star Wars prequels started rough, but eventually became the best and most thoughtful work produced in the universe. There’s no reason that the same couldn’t happen for Overwatch and Diablo.
The history of video game adaptations is dire. Even in the face of a great box office weekend for Sonic the Hedgehog, the best films we’ve had only rise to the level of “That’s fun, I guess.” There have been enjoyable entries in the canon, like 1995’s Mortal Kombat or 2001’s Tomb Raider, but rarely are they amazing films, or even profitable ones. From late 2000s to the mid-2010s, there were even a few direct-to-video attempts like Dead Space: Downfall or Assassin’s Creed: Embers, but none made a huge impact. At the time, adult-focused animation didn’t really have the platform to succeed, as few were willing to spend the money on DVDs and Blu-rays.
The advent of streaming means there’s more opportunities for video game adaptations like those to exist. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and others need new, exclusive programming to compete. For the streaming services, video game adaptations represent recognizable brands with built-in audiences. Finding your next show is as easy as looking at the NPD Group’s best-selling games each year, or various sites’ Games of the Year lists.
For those adapting the games, being on streaming means not having to worry about box office numbers or digital sales as a measure of success. Instead, it’s just a matter of viewers, a metric largely determined by the services themselves. There’s a freedom to producing shows for streaming that’s not found in making a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster aimed at a four-quadrant audience. The folks behind the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot film have to carefully decide, on budget, rating, and demographics, because they need a visible return on investment.
The success of streaming for video game adaptations is already clear. Castlevania on Netflix is currently entering its third season. That series was originally planned as a feature film way back in 2007, languishing in development hell until Netflix picked up eight years later. Castlevania is very successful, and is actually the only representative of that franchise anywhere, since Konami isn’t interested in making games these days. That show has led Castlevania producer Adi Shankar to make deals for shows based on Devil May Cry, Hyper Light Drifter, and Assassin’s Creed.
Many of these shows have recognizable characters, but still offer the freedom plot new storytelling paths. To return to an earlier example, the Mortal Kombat film has certain considerations a streaming series would not. A Mortal Kombat show only has to get the essence of specific characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Liu Kang right; everything else is malleable. The studios have room to play.
And if you’re smarter than Konami and actually have readily-available games on the shelves, then everyone benefits. There’s a resonance to a popular streaming show. Netflix’ live-action The Witcher series actually resulted in a 554% jump in sales of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a video game that came out in 2015. The Witcher novels by creator Andrzej Sapkowski rose 562% year-over-year, putting the series on the New York Times best-seller chart for the first time ever. Success raises all ships.
So, streaming services, it’s time to start looking towards video games more often. Cuphead and The Division are on their way, and you can watch Dragon Quest: Your Story on Netflix right now, but there’s room for more! Where’s a proper, original Final Fantasy show, outside of the brief spinoff Brotherhood: Final Fantasy 15 or the old 2001 anime Final Fantasy: Unlimited? A Fallout series would be fantastic, or perhaps one about the decaying world of Dark Souls? While BioWare is trying to bring Dragon Age back to prominence, an animated show seems like a great onramp. (Better than 2012’s Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, please.)
The possibilities are endless, and done well, it’s a win for everyone involved: streaming services, game companies, and fans. With the competitive streaming market being spun up, now is the time for video games to expand outward. There’s no reason to leave all that streaming money to comics and 80s cartoon revivals, now is there?
