Sony is increasingly revamping its iconic PlayStation video games into high-quality films, a move seen as a way for the studio to maximize the use of its intellectual property across different platforms.
Nikkei AsiaThe company that reported the news also revealed that Sony is continuing its acquisitions of movie theater chains, as it recently did with the North American movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse. This is despite having withdrawn from the race to acquire Paramount Global.
Retooling video games into movies has been an on-and-off proposition for Sony, which has made thousands of games.
The Japanese multimedia giant has also innovated by offering games in the form of interactive films with variable endings, such as Until Dawn and The Quarry. The ending depends on the decisions you make along the way.
Scene from the game Ghost of Tsushima
“Face your fears and decide the fate of eight survivors in this horror classic, rebuilt and enhanced for the PS5 console,” Sony says in a preview of Until Dawn.
Sony has already confirmed that Suckerpunch’s 2020 PlayStation game Ghost of Tsushima will return as a full-length film directed by John Wick franchise’s Chad Stahelski.
But this is not a new idea. Five years ago The Hollywood Reporter wrote an earlier article when Sony launched PlayStation Productions.
“We have 25 years of experience in game development and that has resulted in 25 years of great games, franchises and stories,” Shawn Layden, who oversaw the project, said at the time.
Last year, the game “The Last of Us” became a hit series on HBO.
The renewed interest comes as concerns grow over the lack of exclusive content for PlayStation VR. ChannelNews Australia reported in March that Sony was suspending production of PlayStation VR2 headsets due to a backlog of unsold units.
About the author of the article
