With two big games receiving movie and television series adaptations this week, it’s clear that video game adaptations are hogging the limelight for Hollywood and streaming services.
We are clearly past the days when filmmakers made a quick buck making terrible movies based on video games and exploiting tax loopholes to make an even bigger profit.
A great deal of care and thought is put into these adaptations. While some are misguided, most of the time they stay true to the source material and focus on quality scripts, direction, and aesthetics.
So, the next time you complain about A Minecraft Movie making a lot of money despite clearly being a movie aimed at children, we could have been stuck in the dark ages for a long, long time instead of the renaissance we’re in this generation.
Long story short, be thankful.
Short Beats
Pro player Justin Wong and fighting game organisers Tampa Never Sleeps are teaming up to send a non-sponsored player to EVO 2025 in Las Vegas to compete in Street Fighter 6 and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
Shift Up has mentioned that a Stellar Blade sequel is in the works and may be out sooner than Stellar Blade’s announcement-to-launch time.
Kojima Productions’ upcoming spy game Physint will only get announcements and updates after three or more years.
Netflix will make an animated series based on the Clash of Clans and Clash Royale games.
The Warhammer Skulls 2025 livestream announced several Warhammer 40K titles: Warhammer 40K: Boltgun II and Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy.
The former is a boomer shooter sequel to the first Boltgun, while the latter is a computer role-playing game with turn-based combat.
A24 and writer/director Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Annihilation) will team up with Bandai Namco and FromSoftware to make the live-action adaptation of the hit role-playing game Elden Ring.
Op-Eds
To celebrate the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 in the next few months, here’s a retrospective on Nintendo and how they came to this point in the games industry.
Games Out This Week
SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure is an action-adventure game where you play as a chef-and-hunter duo as they serve Southeast Asian-styled food to customers while also keeping up with rampant orders and wildlife trying to kill them.
Inspired by party games like Overcooked and made as a love letter to amazing Southeast Asian cuisine & culture, SEDAP! is out on PC and consoles.
Blades of Fire is a third-person action-adventure title from MercurySteam, the developers behind the acclaimed Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch. You play as a veteran blacksmith who can make his weapons to combat the armies of the evil Queen Nerea. This action title is out on PC and consoles.
Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker is a free DLC for the original JRPG Sea of Stars. The eight+ hour expansion features new character classes, new enemies and bosses, and a slew of lovely carnival-themed locales to explore & solve puzzles. It’s also free.
Nitro Express is a 2D shoot-em-up where you play as a female cop with a boatload of weapons as she blasts down hordes of rogue mechas and machines threatening the peace. It’s got 2D pixel art, a fun and simple aiming and run-and-gun, explosive, high-energy gameplay.
Recommended Viewing
Unseen, a game company started by Bayonetta & Okami artist and game producer Ikumi Nakamura, has released a new video Q&A talking about the producer’s experiences and the state of the industry.
MinMax has released a video interview with the recently independent game content outlet Giant Bomb, which details its future in an already-shaky industry reliant on changing content-creation trends and whiplash.
