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Adaptations of video games into media

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In adaptations of video games, any work of media (e.g. book, novel, film, anime and manga, television, theater, and machinima) that is based on a video game, usually incorporating elements of the game's narrative or gameplay.

Elision and interpolation

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Originally, as part of the film merchandising, video games were also produced that were thematically more or less closely linked to the games' namesake despite being much challenging in the process. Deviation from the source material is inevitable, as a strict adaptation of a video game will often work against its media counterpart.

Since the mid-1990s, due to the growing popularity and cultural influence of video games in the Hollywood film industry, there have also been collaborations in the opposite direction: an increasing proportion of video games are subsequently either made into films or adapted into films inspired by them.

As a result of the graphical improvements made possible by technological developments and the associated possibilities of immersion in the video game industry, as well as the massive proliferation of computers used to play the games, more and more studios in the entertainment industry saw the potential to profit from the games' popularity.

Format

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Films and televisions

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Primarily video game films and television series can take several forms, such as live-action works (e.g. Sonic the Hedgehog live-action franchise, Resident Evil film series, and Gangs of London), traditionally animated such as films and television series based on the Pokémon franchise, computer-animated (e.g. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Arcane), stop-motion (e.g. Pokémon: Concierge), or machinima (e.g. Diary of a Camper).

There are also exist original video animations (OVAs) based on video games, such as Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls, Dead Space: Downfall, Halo Legends, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic, all of which may be released under direct-to-video form.

Literature

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Sometimes video games also adapted into several literature forms, such as RPG Makers The Witch's House: The Diary of Ellen and Your Turn to Die -Death Game by Majority-.

History

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1986–1992: First feature films in Japan

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In Japan, adaptations are more prevalent due to the popularity of Japanese animation, which allows certain games to be adapted more cheaply and faithfully than in live action. Some films in the 1980s got off to the right start with Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! and Running Boy Star Soldier no Himitsu were the first two feature films adapted from video games. Both films were adapted from Nintendo Entertainment System games in 1986. Between 1991 and 1992, anime films and television series based on Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai were released.

Another adaptation is the very first live action film Mirai Ninja, a 1988 Japanese film based on a Namco arcade game of the same name, despite being a direct-to-video release.[1]

1993–2001: Mainstream breakthrough and introduction

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Super Mario Bros., Hollywood and Paul W. S. Anderson

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The first American live action film based on a video game, the eponymous Super Mario Bros., was released on May 28, 1993, to both critical and commercial failure; Critics including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert lambasted the film's lack of faithfulness to the source material[2] and also criticized for being too dark and violent.[3] The film made several major alterations to the storyline from the video game series, including the exclusion of series regular Princess "Peach" Toadstool, turning the villain King "Bowser" Koopa into a human character (despite the character being a large lizard-like creature in the games) and making the titular brothers into father and son figures, explaining that Mario raised a much younger Luigi, unlike the game series. Additionally, the setting of the film was radically changed from a light, cartoonish adventure to camp parodied dark, dystopian science thriller similar to the world of Blade Runner.

Paul W. S. Anderson in 2012

Video games adapted into films gained first experience and influence of gaming culture in Hollywood following Super Mario Bros. as a whole, few video game adaptations in the following year such as Double Dragon and Street Fighter had received similarly negative reviews and failed to break even;[4][5] one of the first auteurs of video game adaptations is Paul W. S. Anderson, who took advantage of the 1995 film Mortal Kombat in hope that would become a summer blockbuster after the failure of adaptations; ultimately, the film gained average critical and commercial success, and remains the highest-rating video game film of all time for twenty-six years in Metacritic.[6]

Introduction of machinima

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Main article: Machinima

In mid-1990s, Diary of a Camper, based on a video game Quake, was first introduced as a non-interactive game demo file, created by the Rangers, a clan or group of video game players. This led to inspired machinima filmmakers and spurred more complex machinima works in opposite of video games as a medium of filmmaking.[7]: 13, 16 [8]: 32 

Pokémon and animated films

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Animated films and shows also began gaining mainstream success. The first introduced as an anime series of the same name Pokémon, became the most successful video game adaptation of all time in retrospective years.[9] Arc the Lad was also introduced in 1999. The anime films Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994), Pokémon: The First Movie (1998) and Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (1999) became internationally successful. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) was a major milestone in motion-capture computer animation despite its box office failure.

2002–2017: Notoriety in Hollywood and success in Japan

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Uwe Boll, continuation of notorious response and altercations from source materials

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Uwe Boll in 2016.

Video game film adaptations in Hollywood gained notoriety during this period due to large number of films drew mixed-to-negative or panned response. Because video games are an interactive medium there has been trouble in converting them to these passive forms of media, and typically such works have been treated as children's media or Hollywood-style standards.[10][11]

Similar to Super Mario Bros., the main cause of failure among video game adaptations is often cited as the genre's tendency for its films to drastically differ from source materials, as producers, writers and directors take many artistic liberties with the original games. For example: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, whilst based on an ever-changing line of alternate universe role-playing games, did not emphasise in such an obvious way as the games the concepts familiar to players; Resident Evil changed its direction to more action-oriented than horror genre, a new lead character who is not part of the game series, lacking most of the well-known characters and having little to nothing to do with the premise from the game series; Doom traded in religious elements of the video games for scientific plot elements and openly parodied the game's first person shooter gameplay; and Silent Hill radically altered the backstory of the game, replacing the game's demonic cult which sought to birth a new god with a pseudo-Christian witch-burning cult. Several film adaptations of highly violent video game franchises, such as Mortal Kombat, Max Payne, Assassin's Creed and Square Enix's Tomb Raider reboot series, were reduced to less violent than the source material they draw upon.

Among one of the most notorious video game filmmakers is Uwe Boll, a German writer, director, and producer whose works include House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Postal, and Far Cry, all of which were almost universally panned by critics and are considered among the worst films ever made.[12] Similarly, Paul W. S. Anderson has gained a reputation for his panned video game adaptations in the 21st century, particularly Resident Evil series and most recently Monster Hunter.[13]

Critics and developers' response

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Shigeru Miyamoto addressed criticisms of video game adaptation.

Similar to comic book-based films in the past, adaptations tended to carry a reputation of lackluster quality and receive negative reaction from both film critics and fans of the source material.[14] This is generally due to difficulties in adopting a story meant to be played interactively into a linear movie-going experience.[15]

The reason for the failure of video game adaptations is that structural conversion from video game to film format can be challenging for filmmakers. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Nintendo franchises including Mario and Zelda, said in a 2007 interview:

I think that part of the problem with translating games to movies is that the structure of what makes a good game is very different from the structure of what makes a good movie. Movies are a much more passive medium, where the movie itself is telling a story and you, as the viewer, are relaxing and taking that in passively. Whereas video games are a much more active medium where you are playing along with the story. ... I think that video games, as a whole, have a very simple flow in terms of what’s going on in the game. We make that flow entertaining by implementing many different elements to the video game to keep the player entertained. Movies have much more complex stories, or flow, to them, but the elements that affect that flow are limited in number. So I think that because these surrounding elements in these two different mediums vary so greatly, when you fail to take that into account then you run into problems.[16]

In an interview with Fortune in August 2015, Miyamoto said, "Because games and movies seem like similar mediums, people’s natural expectation is we want to take our games and turn them into movies. … I’ve always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different."[17]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated that video games are "inherently inferior to film and literature" and that "video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control." [18]

Anime based on visual novels and subject matter controversy

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On the other hand, anime based on video games became very popular during this period, particularly anime based on visual novels. These included Kanon (2006–2007), Higurashi: When They Cry (2006–2013), Fate/stay night (2006–2015), Clannad (2007–2009) and Steins;Gate (2011–2014). Despite its success of video game adaptations in anime, Yosuga no Sora and School Days, both produced in eroge, are the only ones of the most notorious and controversial examples of the video game adaptation, particularly its depiction of graphic sexual content, violence and mature subject matter (e.g. incest and teenage sexuality) in plot.[19]

2018–present: Modern age

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Observers noted a substantial uptick in the critical and commercial success of video game adaptations in the late 2010s and 2020s.[20][21][22][23] Until 2019, no video game film – live-action or animated – had received a Rotten Tomatoes "fresh" rating, with a score over 60%. Four films since, Detective Pikachu, The Angry Birds Movie 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Detention have been able to break into the "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[24][25] Both Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog have posted better-than-expected domestic takes,[26] with Sonic having the highest domestic opening through 2020.[27] Sonic's success led to its sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releasing in April 2022 and beating the first film's domestic opening.[28] Upon these films improved since 2019 but not only ones who also received likely below 75% of fresh rating from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, Detention (2019) and Werewolves Within (2021) took over the record with 86% of positive reviews.[29] Following these two films, new adaptations of games into films and television series became more successful and showed that adaptations that held to a game's story but did not try to maintain the video game aspects were more popular with audiences.

Creators of film and television adaptations found quickly that to help appeal these shows to video game audiences, they had to assure the work showed respect for the video game it was based on, both in narratives and appearance, following the online fan backlash to the original appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog (known colloquially as "Ugly Sonic") that had been shown in the original trailers for Sonic the Hedgehog, which the studio reworked before the theatrical release.[30] Video game adaptations in film and television have also led to growth of players in the original video game work, such as the case with Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout games.[31][32]

Shows were all critically-praised series based on video games since 2017,[33][34][35][36] allows American streaming companies began to air television series based on video games. Successful animated series during this time include Castlevania (2017–2021), Arcane (2021–2024) and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022).[37] The first success of a live-action series is a British crime drama series Gangs of London (2020–present). Successful high-budget live-action series include The Last of Us (2023–present) and Fallout (2024–present), both were nominated the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.[38][39]

Revenue

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Main article: List of highest-grossing films based on video games

Though video game films are critically panned, they tend to do well from the international take at box offices. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, based on the Mario game franchise, holds the highest take of any video game adaptation with US$1.36 billion, and was considered the most profitable film of 2023 by Deadline Hollywood, while the six Resident Evil films hold the highest take for a live-action series of US$1.2 billion on an average production budget between US$30 to 50 million and Pokémon is the overall highest-grossing video game film franchise with US$1.5 billion.[40][41]

Only six films have grossed more than $400 million in the box office worldwide as of April 2023: Warcraft (2016), Rampage (2018), Detective Pikachu (2019), Uncharted (2022), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), with the latter becoming the first video game film to ever pass the $1 billion mark, making it one of the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time.

Awards

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Video game adaptations have top-notched the main recognitions in major award ceremonies, most primarily the divisions of Emmy Awards, started in the late-2010s.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Chute, Harrison (2023-01-13). "Best Video Game Adaptations That Prove They're Not All Terrible". Collider. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
  2. ^ Siskel, Jean; Ebert, Roger (August 18, 2008). Siskel & Ebert Review "Super Mario Bros.". YouTube. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  3. ^ McDonald, Andy (June 4, 2018). "'It Was a Living Hell': The Game-Over Making of the 'Super Mario Bros.' Movie, 25 Years Later". Playboy. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  4. ^ Weaver, Ross (2021-09-24). "A Brief History of Video Game Movies". Film Cred. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  5. ^ Partin, Will (2017-04-07). "The Golden Age of Shitty Videogame Adaptations". Medium. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  6. ^ "Every Movie Based on a Videogame, Ranked Worst to Best". www.metacritic.com. 2024-08-08. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  7. ^ Lowood, Henry (2005). "Real-Time Performance: Machinima and Game Studies" (PDF). The International Digital Media & Arts Association Journal. 2 (1): 10–17. ISSN 1554-0405. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 1, 2006. Retrieved 2013-03-22.
  8. ^ Lowood, Henry (2006). "High-performance play: The making of machinima". Journal of Media Practice. 7 (1): 25–42. doi:10.1386/jmpr.7.1.25/1. S2CID 191359937.
  9. ^ Bailey, Kat (17 November 2016). "Why the Pokemon Anime is the Most Successful Adaptation of a Videogame Ever". VG247. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  10. ^ Donato, Matt (2023-01-23). "The Video Game Adaptation Curse Is A Myth". IGN. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  11. ^ Martinez, Marina. "Breaking the "Video game curse"". Three Penny Press. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  12. ^ "'The market is dead': Schlock director Uwe Boll's Rampage of terrible films is finished". Metro News. Archived from the original on 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  13. ^ Hughes, William (February 7, 2019). "Paul W.S. Anderson's latest video game adaptation is starting to sound pretty kick-ass". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  14. ^ Whitten, Sarah (February 14, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog' is up against the stigma of video game flops at the box office". CNBC. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  15. ^ Whitten, Sarah (May 10, 2019). "'Detective Pikachu' doesn't escape the pitfalls of previous video game adaptations but is poised for a record-breaking opening weekend". CNBC. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  16. ^ "Miyamoto: The Interview". Edge Magazine. November 27, 2007. Archived from the original on May 3, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  17. ^ Morris, Chris (August 21, 2015). "Shigeru Miyamoto Talks Nintendo's Return to the Movie World". Fortune. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  18. ^ "Why did the chicken cross the genders?". Chicago Sun-Times.
  19. ^ Bhattacharya, Anirban (2024-08-26). "21 Disturbing Anime With Themes of Incest". The Cinemaholic. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  20. ^ "WE NOW LIVE IN A GOLDEN AGE OF VIDEO GAME ADAPTATIONS". DIRECTV Insider. 2022-07-26. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  21. ^ Winkie, Luke. "Is This the Golden Age of Videogame IP?". WSJ. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  22. ^ Tom Power (2024-04-10). "Fallout season 1 is Prime Video's explosively entertaining addition to the golden age lineup of video game adaptations". TechRadar. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  23. ^ Sayatovich, Neal (2021-04-23). "The Golden Age Of Video Game Movies and Shows - Gameindustry.com". Game Industry News. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  24. ^ Cook, Meghan (19 August 2019). "Popular movies inspired by video games, ranked from worst to best". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  25. ^ Whitten, Sarah (February 14, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog' is up against the stigma of video game flops at the box office". CNBC. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Whitten, Sarah (February 14, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog' is up against the stigma of video game flops at the box office". CNBC. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  27. ^ Kroll, Justin (May 28, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog' Sequel in the Works". Variety.com. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  28. ^ McClintlock, Pamela (April 10, 2022). "Box Office: 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2' Booms With $71M Bow, 'Ambulance' DOA". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  29. ^ "49 Video Game Movies Ranked by Tomatometer". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  30. ^ Krouse, Sarah; Needleman, Sarah E. (March 30, 2024). "Hollywood Finds Fresh Characters And New Worlds in Videogames". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  31. ^ Batchelor, James (January 22, 2022). "Cyberpunk 2077 ramps up to 1m active players following Netflix anime, Edgerunners update". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  32. ^ Purdy, Kevin (April 18, 2024). "Fallout games continue seeing big player jumps after the TV series' success". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  33. ^ Barasch, Alex (December 26, 2022). "Can "The Last of Us" Break the Curse of Bad Video-Game Adaptations?". New Yorker. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  34. ^ Deitz, Mik (January 13, 2023). "A Conversation about the Conversation about Videogame Adaptations". Paste. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  35. ^ Wong, Jacky (January 26, 2023). "'The Last of Us' Is Just the Start for Sony". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  36. ^ Otterson, Joe (April 18, 2024). "'Fallout' Officially Renewed for Season 2 at Amazon". Variety. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  37. ^ Challenor, Jake (2023-07-28). "Why Are There So Many Video Game Adaptations Now?". Rolling Stone Australia. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  38. ^ Wong, Jacky (January 26, 2023). "'The Last of Us' Is Just the Start for Sony". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  39. ^ Biggin, Matthew (2024-04-13). "Fallout Game Director Gives Cautious Response To Future Adaptations After Prime Video Show". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  40. ^ Whitten, Sarah (February 14, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog' is up against the stigma of video game flops at the box office". CNBC. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  41. ^ "'The Super Mario Bros Movie' Levels All the Way up to Win Deadline's 2023 Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament". 6 May 2024.
  42. ^ "Outstanding Children's Program – 2019". Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  43. ^ "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation (juried) – 2019". Archived from the original on December 8, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  44. ^ "Winners from the 47th Daytime Children's, Lifestyle & Animation Ceremony". National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. July 26, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
  45. ^ "Nominees announced for the 47th Annual Daytime Emmy® Awards" (PDF). New York: National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. May 21, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
  46. ^ "Arcane". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  47. ^ "'Arcane,' 'Annie Live!' Among Juried Winners for 2022 Emmys". The Hollywood Reporter. August 11, 2022. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  48. ^ Milligan, Mercedes (December 8, 2022). "NATAS Announces Individual Achievement in Animation Winners for 1st Children's & Family Emmys". Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  49. ^ Vary, Adam B. (July 12, 2023). "'The Last of Us' Emmy Noms Make It the First Live-Action Video Game Adaptation to Earn Major Awards Consideration". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  50. ^ Tangcay, Jazz; Littleton, Cynthia (January 6, 2024). "'The Last of Us' Grabs Eight Wins on Night 1 of 2023 Creative Arts Emmy Awards". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  51. ^ Schneider, Michael (December 16, 2023). "Children's & Family Creative Arts Emmys 2023 Full Winners List: Netflix, Disney, 'Sesame Street,' Jack Black and More". Variety. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  52. ^ "FilmAffinity". FilmAffinity. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
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