PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst has indicated the company’s recent investment in Elden Ring developer FromSoftware could also birth new movie and television projects.
Speaking to Reuters about PlayStation’s recent spate of investments and acquisitions, Hulst explained that while onlookers should consider how those deals will enable “collaborations on the game development side first and foremost,” it’s also possible the company will also start to “explore opportunities” with its PlayStation Productions business.
Those comments were directly referring to Sony’s recent investment in FromSoftware, which saw the console maker increase its stake in the studio to 14.09 percent.
Hulst’s comments don’t mean Sony is about to start petitioning HBO to make an Elden Ring show or pitch a Demon’s Souls movie to the bosses over at A24 (though, we’d be all for that), but it’s still interesting to hear that Sony’s ongoing investments aren’t being made solely with video games in mind.
PlayStation Productions has only been operational since 2019, with Sony establishing the production arm to develop films and television shows based on its video game catalog. The studio has already greenlit a number of high-profile productions, including a TV show based on The Last of Us that’s slated to air in 2023 and an Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland that hit the silver screen earlier this year.
Outlining its approach to adapting video games to other mediums, former SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden said PlayStation Productions would look to do precisely that: adapt storylines and experiences specifically for new audiences without looking to replicate a franchise 1:1.
“You can see just by watching older video game adaptations that the screenwriter or director didn’t understand that world or the gaming thing,” said Layden when PlayStation Productions launched in 2019. “The real challenge is, how do you take 80 hours of gameplay and make it into a movie? The answer is, you don’t. What you do is you take that ethos you write from there specifically for the film audience. You don’t try to retell the game in a movie.”