By: Angela Cui, Violet Garner, Natalie Geriot, Ruhi Guhathakurta, Muge Li

The video game industry has been the most rapidly growing sector of entertainment with an estimated 3 billion gamers worldwide, and an estimated $300+ billion in revenue by 2027 (Wakelyn & Baker, 2024). Due to the popularity and booming business of video games, Hollywood studios have capitalized on popular game titles by developing new content based off of their intellectual property (IP). Studios using any form of IP is a risk-averse way of developing new film and television content – the source material already has an established fanbase, and if an adaptation is successful it can lead to a future franchise.

Although the growing popularity of video game adaptations began in 2016 with films such as the Resident Evil franchise (2016), the first video game adaptation was Super Mario Bros.: The Movie in 1993. This film was not successful financially or with audiences, yet it was the start to an ever-growing trend in Hollywood (IMDb, 2024). In 2023, HBO’s The Last of Us, based off of the game of the same title, earned 24 Emmy nominations and over 32 million viewers (Nash, 2023). Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie surpassed Disney’s Frozen as the second top-grossing animated movie of all time (The Economic Times, 2023).

This research study for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) set out to better understand what makes adaptations successful, and what SPE can consider when making future adaptations, in order to remain competitive in the entertainment industry. This research seeks to evaluate (1) video game IP’s impact on the film and television markets, (2) how SPE’s competitors have adapted game IP, and (3) which specific elements from video game IP impacts its film or television derivative’s success.

SPE is a division of the Tokyo-based Sony Corporation, responsible for creating Sony-branded film, television, music, and games. Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group’s portfolio consists of over 3,500 films, 12 of which are Best Picture Academy Award winners, and the company has distribution offices in over 20 countries (Sony Pictures,2024). Sony Corporation also encapsulates Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which produces all PlayStation consoles and games (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2024). Sony Interactive Entertainment was one of the top three leaders in gaming revenue in 2023, reaching $8 billion (Elliott, 2023). Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Interactive Entertainment have formed a partnership to produce recent filmed content from gaming IP such as Uncharted (2022) and Gran Turismo (2023). Sony Pictures Entertainment (in collaboration with SIE) plans on continuing being an entertainment leader in the game-to-film adaptation space.

Why Look Into This Now?

When describing the influx of video game IP to film and TV adaptations, Variety stated that “intellectual property is what fuels today’s Hollywood,” (Goldstein, 2022, para. 1) demonstrated by the fact that at the end of 2022, the top eight box office hits had been sequels or reboots including SPE’s Uncharted (Goldstein). IP adaptations are seen as “safe” by attaching the project “to a proven success or brand,” (Goldstein, para. 1) which maintains a risk-averse approach to developing content. Since IP adaptations come with a passionate pre-built fanbase, they often have franchise potential, which includes the highest-grossing films currently in the industry (Top Lifetime Grosses, 2024). Thus, it is unsurprising that studios are seeking out IP to develop versus original concepts.

While this trend of IP adaptation began with books, plays, and comics, video games offer a fresh avenue for this exploration – often with larger audiences than the aforementioned media (Curcic, 2021). This is especially relevant now, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), based on comic IP, is slowly declining in both box-office gross and ratings (Conte, 2023), after a nearly two-decade-long reign of garnering extremely profitable films (Top Lifetime Grosses, 2024). As a result, video game IP has an increased chance of securing a prominent position in the film and TV industry. After Universal Studios’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed $200 million during its opening week, it becomes reasonable to consider that the MCU may be replaced by “the next big cinematic universe […] the Nintendo Cinematic Universe” (Lee, 2023, para. 10), which is as equally plausible as being replaced by the Sony Cinematic Universe.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Trailer, Source: Illumination

This is especially relevant for SPE due to their intersection with SIE, giving the studio access to a wealth of video game IP from their PlayStation consoles – with 286 exclusive games as of December 2022, compared to their closest competitor, Xbox, having only 59 exclusive games (Venter, 2022). With this significant library under the PlayStation brand, SPE has a unique advantage with the potential to tap into a diverse library of pre-established, and oftentimes beloved, stories and characters. As Dr. Jonathan Stringfield, VP of Global Business Research and Marketing at Activision Blizzard Media, said, “Not a lot of studios have that depth of IP to tap into, whereas video games are a huge body of IP that has been relatively unexploited” (Lee, 2023, para. 10). Therefore, if adaptations of video game IP continue to succeed, Sony will be in a unique position by having access to not only SPE–a film and TV studio, but also SIE–a video game studio. Sony can leverage content and gain an edge over both film and TV studios as well as video game studios, as most companies do not have an overlap between the two domains.

Game adaptations are a useful revenue tool through the gamer-to-viewer and viewer-to-gamer pipelines. Sony utilizing the SPE and SIE partnership allows the company to see both sides of this benefit. According to the 2024 State of the Game Industry Report, only 25% of AAA developers have games being adapted into films or TV shows (GDC, 2024). However, developers have seen an increase in interest from studios looking to adapt their games, placing SPE at an advantage as a first mover in the market. There is also evidence that successful adaptations have a positive impact on game sales. Following the success of Amazon Prime’s Fallout (2024) television series, which became their second-most-streamed show, the corresponding game Fallout 4 saw a 525% increase in number of active players and rising in the Steam download charts to its best numbers since the game’s launch (Tassi, 2024). Previously, game download numbers were kept private (such as the case with SPE and SIE), but the news of Fallout’s viewer-to-gamer conversion may now lead more game studios pursuing adaptations.

A History of Video Game Adaptations

The Oxford Handbook of Adaptations breaks down the process of video game adaptation into four building blocks: Adapting Virtual Worlds, Porting, Localization and Modding, and User-Generated Adaptation. The first, ‘Adapting Virtual Worlds,’ focuses on the intricacies of transporting one medium to another (Flanagan, 2017). Some genres of video games have a platform more adaptable to other mediums, including but not limited to side-scrolling platformers, single-screen puzzle games, first-person shooters, and text-only adventure games (Flanagan, 2017). The second, ‘Porting,’ illustrates the nuances depending on the device for which the video game is created. Platform-specific technological affordances may aid in or constrain the adaptation process. The third aspect is ‘Localization,’ which speaks to the translation aspects and cultural specificity that an adaptation should aim to replicate. The fourth, ‘Modding and User-Generated Adaptation,’ elucidates the role of fans and how their interaction with the IP modifies an adaptation. Often a game and the player begin to form a symbiotic relationship, where both adapt to better fit the other (Flanagan).

The correlation between the entertainment and video game industries has existed for a long time, although it only became mainstream in the mid-2010s. In 1989, Universal Studios and Nintendo collaborated to release Todd Holland’s film The Wizard, a feature-length advertisement for Nintendo products such as NES and The Power Glove. The movie was also used to introduce North American audiences to Nintendo’s new game, Super Mario 3 (Picard, 2008). The first adaptation based on a video game, Super Mario Bros.: The Movie, was released four years later in 1993. The film was distributed by Walt Disney Studios, and was a financial failure – the film had a budget of $48 million, and only made a little over $20 million worldwide (Box Office Mojo, 2024c). The failure of this 1993 Super Mario Bros. adaptation is a strong contrast when compared to Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which made a profit of over $1 billion in revenue at the global box office (Box Office Mojo, 2024d).

Current State of the Industry

In 2023, the global games market generated revenues of a projected $184 billion, representing +0.6% year-on-year growth (Newzoo, 2023). Mobile games contribute most to the growth in the global gaming market, but most are considered “cozy games'' that are relatively simple and do not require high engagement (YPulse, 2023). In contrast to mobile games, console or PC games tend to have darker and more mature themes, intense narratives, and complex storytelling, making the gaming experience more engaging.

3.26 billion people worldwide play video games (Dimitrievski, 2023); however, gamers are more than just people who simply play video games passively. People who are actively engaging in gaming, familiar with trending IPs, and knowledgeable about the gaming industry are all considered gamers. Within our research, we define gamers as those who are self-identified – willing to admit that “I am a gamer,” – or those who spent more than 4 hours playing video games in the past 7 days.

Gamers appear to be the primary target of video game adaptations. YPulse (2023)’s data shows that 67% of gamers agree that they’re more likely to watch a film if it’s based on a video game, compared with only 32% of non-gamers. Meanwhile, 48% of gamers have watched a film based on a video game, compared with only 30% of non-gamers (YPulse, 2023).

The Evolution of Play: The Video Game Adaptations Landscape

Uncharted (2022), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), Gran Turismo (2023), and Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023) all represent the growing popularity of live-action adaptations. Of these films, The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the biggest video game adaptation ever, earning over $1.36 billion globally at the box office, (Box Office Mojo, 2024d) and even surpassing Frozen (2013) as the 2nd top–grossing animated film of all time (Rubin, 2023). Moreover, Uncharted became the fifth highest-grossing film based on a video game worldwide at the time, while Five Nights at Freddy’s became the highest-grossing horror movie of 2023 and Blumhouse’s top grossing film of all time, despite the negative critic reviews (Gunning, 2023). This trend of video game adaptations does not seem to be slowing with a large upcoming slate of films and TV shows from a variety of different studios. Most of these current adaptations are based on console or PC games. The console games market is dominated by the three big IP owners: Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox (Industry Latest Updates, 2023), but many smaller or independant video game studios have also recently announced adaptations in the works. Many of the top PC games such as Minecraft and Cyberpunk 2077 have already announced upcoming adaptation plans (D'Alessandro, 2024; Peters, 2023).

Despite the growing number of successes, not all video game IP adapted to film has had the same impact on audiences, such as the recent Gran Turismo (2023). This film met the lower end of its opening weekend projection of just over $17 million, after costing $60 million to produce (Grove, 2023). Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) and Warcraft (2016) are examples of other films that are based on popular games but have underperformed and failed to reach box office expectations (Mendelson, 2021).

Compared with film adaptations, making video games into television series is a fairly new area, with some recent successes such as Arcane (2021), The Last of Us (2023), and Twisted Metal (2023). Twisted Metal set an audience record for comedies on Peacock when it first launched (Campione, 2023), and The Last of Us broke industry norms and set new records for video game adaptations with 24 Emmy nominations including Outstanding Drama Series – a category that has not historically been welcoming to genre shows (i.e. science fiction and fantasy) (Andreeva, 2023).

During adaptation it is important to consider the differences between gamers and film and TV viewers, and identify the target audience of the films and TV series, as well as what elements should be taken from the game and what should be avoided.

Overview of the World & Importance of Fans

Although most adaptations have been financial and pop culture successes, not all gaming companies are willing to work with studios to make these adaptations. With the overwhelming and continued success of the gaming industry, some entertainment industry executives have stated that game studios do not necessarily need to adapt IP to film and television (Anonymous IP/Acquisitions Director, personal communication, November 20th, 2023). There is not as great of an incentive for adaptations due to the success of the original IP. Despite the lack of incentives, there are benefits in adapting game IP to film and television which can be exemplified by HBO’s The Last of Us. After the series was released, the PS4 version of the game saw a +322% increase in sales, and the PS5 version of the game saw a +238% increase (Spider-Mike, 2023). This was further supported by Fallout 4’s +525% increase in number of active users, rising to second place in Steam’s current most played nine years after its initial release, proving that there is a strong potential for a viewer-to-gamer pipeline (Tassi, 2024).

Although box office revenue and viewership are the primary factors to look at when determining the success of a film or television series, studios and gaming companies also look to fan reactions after an adaptation is released. Carter Swan, Senior Producer of IP Expansion at PlayStation, stated that the creators of adaptations are typically fans of the original IP themselves – the last thing that they want to do is disappoint fans of the IP when making it into an adaptation (personal communication, January 5th, 2024).

In addition to not disappointing current fans of the IP, studios also need to consider how to satisfy audiences that are not already familiar with the game. Oftentimes gamers that have never played a certain IP use its adaptation to determine whether they want to invest their time and money into playing – some adaptations “perfectly capture the spirit of the original game without directly translating it” (Lennox, 2023, para. 4). Adaptations allow non-gamer film and TV fans to be able to understand the content and develop the desire to play the source material, and gaming fans are able to appreciate a nod to the content that they are already familiar with.

A direct example of fans impacting an adaptation is from 2019, when the trailer for Paramount Pictures’ first Sonic The Hedgehog movie was released. The live-action film was based off of a Nintendo character, Sonic, and animators tried to make him look more lifelike rather than directly imitating his game counterpart. After seeing the trailer, Sonic fans and the general public were outraged at Sonic’s appearance and made their criticism’s clear to the film’s director, Jeff Fowler (Sharf, 2019). Fowler and Paramount announced that the film would be delayed four months for them to “make Sonic just right” (Sharf, 2019, para. 5).

**Figure 1** *Sonic: Before and After Fan Input*
*Source: (KinoCheck, 2019)*

Paramount’s President of Domestic Distribution, Chris Aronson, stated, “the consumer always determines what is right and what is wrong. They made their voices clear, and we listened” (Rubin, 2020, para. 4). After the character redesign was approved by fans, the film went on to have a $100 million debut weekend, and a sequel film two years later with a worldwide revenue of over $400 million. A third film in the franchise is set to debut in late 2024. The rare instance of taking extreme fan outrage in consideration to re-animate an entire film was proven to be a huge financial success.

Converting game IP to film and television adaptations is an ever-growing trend in entertainment, that is and will continue to be “a key pillar in game marketing” (Lennox, 2023, para. 7). Although there have been some box office failures, such as SPE’s Gran Turismo, the genre has been able to see positive growth both on the studio and gaming business sides.

Conclusion

The video game industry is robust with 3.26 billion people worldwide (Dimitrievski, 2023) generating around $184.0 billion annually (Newzoo, 2023). While there is the possibility to increase sales and profits, gaming companies may also face apprehensions in adapting IP, concerning backlash from fans. This creates a complex dynamic that requires careful navigation and strategic partnerships between studios and gaming companies alike.

Part II provides further insight through interviews with industry experts as well as a consumer survey regarding video game adaptations.