Game of Thrones is one of the biggest entertainment properties today. While the books began two decades ago and were critically praised, they didn't reach the heights of popularity that the show has. The season finale of the most recent season of the show pulled in over 16 million people setting a massive record. It's all people talk about the day after it airs and the show's popularity has let it spin off into other mediums such as video games.
Before the show came around and spawned two video games, a critically panned RPG and a Telltale game set in the universe of the show, there was almost a game published by EA and developed by Fallout New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment in 2005. While the studio was aware of the novels, they turned down the game.
"My feeling was, understanding the IP at the time, it's about this political intrigue, and people's connection to the IP is to all these characters – that's how the books are written, each chapter is a person and what's happening to them," CEO Feargus Urquhart told Eurogamer.
"Other than what weird stuff is going on beyond The Wall, and the dragons, and some hint [of fantasy/magic], there are no magic users, there are no clerics, no thieves. Basically there's dudes with swords and armour and a little bit of mysticism, but within the main land [the Seven Kingdoms] there's no goblins, no kobolds…"
"And," Obsidian co-founder and vice president of development Chris Parker added, "you can't give the player a character they can play that is important in this world. All of the important characters are all clearly spelled out and you can't even really go have a conversation with them."
"Looking back at it," added Urquhart, "the only thing we could have done is what BioWare did with Knights of the Old Republic. They basically said Episodes 1-6, you can't touch it, so we're just going to go way back. But even then some stuff had already been written about it in the [Star Wars] Expanded Universe. With George R. R. Martin there was no other… they talked about some history… we could have done that."
So, it sounds like the idea was turned down simply because there wasn't enough room for them to work with at the time. It makes sense but if they had actually gone through with it and would've been able to get sequels off the ground that lasted through today, Obsidian might be an entirely different studio.
Would you have liked to see a Game of Thrones game from Obsidian or do you have someone else you'd like to see develop one? Let us know in the comments below!
