It seems enough is never enough for Hollywood. After discovering that video-game adaptations can make money, Hollywood is now looking at almost every game and wondering how quickly somebody can turn it into a film or television series. The latest titles to receive this treatment are ARC Raiders and The Finals. The speed of this announcement is rather impressive, if I do say so myself. I mean, players barely had time to become emotionally attached before the cinematic universe came into view.
An agreement is currently in place between Nexon and Chernin Entertainment to develop film and television projects based on both games. It is widely known that Chernin Entertainment has worked on projects including Backrooms and Netflix’s The Last House. While Nexon is the parent company of Embark Studios, the developer behind ARC Raiders and The Finals.
And as always, we have a few questions. The alliance does not explain whether both games will become films and television shows. Or whether one is heading to the big screen while the other settles into streaming. No writers, directors, actors or release dates have been announced either. So, at the moment, we have two adaptations and very little idea about what shape either of them will take. GamesRadar. But one thing is for sure, both games arrive with worlds that Hollywood can work with.
ARC Raiders takes place in 2180 after a mysterious mechanical enemy known as ARC forces humanity underground. Players become Raiders. These Raiders travel to the dangerous surface to collect supplies, search for useful resources and hopefully return without a machine turning them into a cautionary tale. There is enough mystery, danger and post-apocalyptic scenery there to support a film. Or several seasons of television, depending on how long everyone takes to explain what the robots are after. This type of story has definitely worked for Hollywood in the past.
The Finals, on the other hand, takes place inside a violent virtual game show. Sound familiar? Contestants compete in arenas where buildings can collapse, walls can disappear and almost everything around them can become part of the fight. Basically, it is the sort of television programme that would receive several complaints before becoming the most watched show of the year.
Embark founder and CEO Patrick Söderlund described the agreement as the next step in turning the games into “deeply integrated transmedia experiences”. Which is a rather professional way of saying these worlds are no longer expected to remain inside your console.
And therein lies the interesting part.
There was a time when Hollywood waited for a video game to become old enough to have sequels. They also waited for merchandise and an audience willing to argue about it online for 15 years. Only then would somebody purchase the rights and produce a film that ignored most of what people liked about the game in the first place. But change is inevitable and we should embrace it, right? The Last of Us, Fallout, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Sonic the Hedgehog proved that game adaptations attract audiences when the people making them understand the material. Hollywood no longer treats video games as strange little stories that need to be fixed before entering respectable entertainment. Studios now see them as worlds that already contain characters, visual identities and large groups of potential viewers.
So it’s not all doom and gloom. There is some good news attached. Creators may receive opportunities to expand stories beyond the games, which is great. ARC Raiders, for example, gives players pieces of its world while they explore and survive. A television series could spend more time with the people living underground, explain how humanity reached that point and show what happens when Raiders are not searching abandoned buildings for something valuable.
But the excitement surrounding game adaptations also creates another problem.
Studios could start viewing every successful game as an unfinished franchise instead of something that already works in its original form. I am of the opinion that not every game needs a series, a film, a prequel and a limited documentary about the robot that appeared in the background for only a few seconds. Sometimes people simply enjoy playing a game.
There is also the question of how you adapt titles built around player participation. Watching somebody search for resources is not as exciting as doing it yourself while your inventory is full and something unpleasant is approaching from behind. That boosts your adrenaline to another level. The Finals works because players cause the chaos. Remove that control and you may end up with an expensive game-show story containing quite a lot of collapsing concrete.
Of the two, ARC Raiders seems like the more obvious choice for a traditional screen adaptation. Its ruined world, mysterious machines and underground communities already sound like the beginning of a science-fiction series. The Finals may require a little more creativity, but its virtual competition could work if the adaptation looks beyond the matches and explores the people controlling the spectacle.
For now, Chernin and Nexon have announced an agreement rather than two completed productions. A great many projects enter development without ever reaching our screens, so it may be a while before we see either one. But this announcement tells us something about where entertainment is heading. A successful game is no longer allowed to remain only a successful game. It must now prepare itself for Hollywood, streaming and the possibility that somebody will cast a very recognisable actor as a Raider who refuses to wear a helmet.
Players are still discovering the worlds of ARC Raiders and The Finals. And Hollywood? Well… it has already started planning what they should become next.
