Game News Bethesda passed on a Game of Thrones title

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks

<p>Unfortunately Bethesda had to turn down the offer to make a "A Song of Ice and Fire" cRPG, <a href="http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/bethesdas-todd-howard-on-turning-down-a-chance-to-make-a-song-of-fire-and-ice-titles/" target="_blank">Todd Howard explains</a>.</p>
<p><span> </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>&ldquo;</em>With&nbsp;<em>A Song of Ice and Fire</em>, we went &lsquo;We want to do that!&rsquo; People in our studio liked it, and it seeped in a bit to what we were doing,&rdquo; Howard explained. &ldquo;We were actually asked a while ago to turn those books into games.&rdquo;</p>
<p>So why didn&rsquo;t they take the leap? According to Howard, the idea of a partnership was very tempting, but the team was just too invested in their own IP.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We wanted to do our own world. That&rsquo;s where we wanted to put out time into. Before we were even making&nbsp;<em>Skyrim</em>, there was a conversation with George R.R. Martin&rsquo;s people. They thought it would be a good match&mdash;and so did we, actually&mdash;but then we thought about if that was where we wanted to spend our time. It was tempting, though.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We can only imagine how awesome that would have been.</p>
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<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/104769-bethesda-turned-down-offer-to-work-on-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-title.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[Angthoron]

What, someone didn't want their franchise raped? Shocking.

 

[Baron]

What, someone didn't want their franchise raped? Shocking.

Bethesda sells games on the strength of their graphics. It's enough to offer a bland fantasy world with a cameo voice actor. A partnership would eat into their profits.

Bioware peels the D&D and Star Wars stickers off their boxes, releases a product aimed squarely at the center of the genre, profits.

 

[DwarvenFood]

This is actually good news.

 

[Andhaira]

Interesting. So Beth was approached by GRRM's people, and they said no. I can only assume that it was due to money. They would likely sell the same amount of games either way, but with a licensed game they would have to pay GRRM a chunk of the profits.

 

[ortucis]

Interesting. So Beth was approached by GRRM's people, and they said no. I can only assume that it was due to money. They would likely sell the same amount of games either way, but with a licensed game they would have to pay GRRM a chunk of the profits.

Maybe if they were offered 72.1 virgins..

 

[Spectacle]

They should get Taleworlds to do it instead.
(Hmm, maybe they are? We haven't heard anything from taleworlds lately)

 

[curry]

Get Piranha Bytes to do it and maybe it'll be worth playing

 

[kazgar]

Story must be related to this Game of Thrones game put out by cyanide studios (blood bowl, loki)

http://www.agot-genesis.com/

probably better as a strategy anyhow.

 

[Bitcher]

There is aGoT ARPG in the works, too, also by Cyanide.
Well thank God Beth passed on that, with their juvenile writing and tendecy to rape all the lore in sight I can't even fathom what abomination it would turn out to be. Actually, even though I don't like it that much, I could see aGoT game being like 2Witcher, as in an action game with many c&c and some character switching. I mean, GRRM's books aren't really good basis for pure RPG, since they're very low on magic and there are pretty much no intelligent races aside from humans.

 

[Mayday]

GRRM's books aren't really good basis for pure RPG, since they're very low on magic and there are pretty much no intelligent races aside from humans.

 

[Fafnir]

GRRM's books aren't really good basis for pure RPG, since they're very low on magic and there are pretty much no intelligent races aside from humans.

 

[Sordid Jester]

They probably realised that they'd have to actually read the books in order to even marginally bullshit their way through with PR and that'd too much work for Bethesda

 

[Bitcher]

GRRM's books aren't really good basis for pure RPG, since they're very low on magic and there are pretty much no intelligent races aside from humans.

That's a shitty emote you have here. I had to enlarge it to even see what it was supposed to show. And what's your problem? You couldn't bring new characters with formidable magic powers without it being a retcon. Lack of diversity in terms of playable races would also mean less options in customization. ASoIaF setting isn't fit for a traditional party-based RPG. (and that's what I consider "pure") The action-oriented approach Cyanide is taking seems more reasonable, although they also seem to be introducing some retcons of their own from what I've heard.

 

[mikaelis]

GRRM's books aren't really good basis for pure RPG, since they're very low on magic and there are pretty much no intelligent races aside from humans.

That's a shitty emote you have here. I had to enlarge it to even see what it was supposed to show. And what's your problem? You couldn't bring new characters with formidable magic powers without it being a retcon. Lack of diversity in terms of playable races would also mean less options in customization. ASoIaF setting isn't fit for a traditional party-based RPG. (and that's what I consider "pure") The action-oriented approach Cyanide is taking seems more reasonable, although they also seem to be introducing some retcons of their own from what I've heard.

And here I thought we all pretty much agreed that cRPGs desperately need something new in the setting department rather than "traditional" and generic ones served up till this point...

 

[Angthoron]

RPGs are about a party on a horse, casting magic spells.

 

[Breaking Axe]

GRRM's books aren't really good basis for pure RPG, since they're very low on magic and there are pretty much no intelligent races aside from humans.

http://greenronin.com/sifrp/
There's actual races in the setting anyway. Dornishmen, First Men and those other guys, angles or whatever, not to mention those across the narrow sea. Why does an RPG need magic to work anyway?

Bleh

 

[Bitcher]

And here I thought we all pretty much agreed that cRPGs desperately need something new in the setting department rather than "traditional" and generic ones served up till this point...

Oh I am open to new things but aSoIaF's strongest point isn't as much the setting as the storyline and characters. I don't quite see how you could derive interesting and original RPG mechanics from it.

Why does an RPG need magic to work anyway?

It doesn't but magic is something that adds depth to RPG combat. If you don't have it, then you better have something to replace it with. And, unless you include riding dragons, aSoIaF game doesn't seem to offer many options.

 

[Andhaira]

Bitcher, you mean well but you end up looking retarded. By your defination, Fallout also is not an rpg, since it has no magic and no races.

 

[St. Toxic]

Wut abowt muttans thei r raize?

 

[Bitcher]

Bitcher, you mean well but you end up looking retarded. By your defination, Fallout also is not an rpg, since it has no magic and no races.

I didn't give any "definations" of what an RPG is or has to include, though Fallout is indeed not a particularly good RPG in terms of combat. Excuse me, if I seem to pay too much attention to this aspect, but harsh reality is that most RPGs have lots of it and without some variety they're prone to becoming tedious.

 

[mikaelis]

I don't quite see how you could derive interesting and original RPG mechanics from it.

Let's wait till Thursday, shall we? Then we will know more if something like this could work.

 

[Black]

I'd gladly play a low fantasy RPG. The cool thing about low fantasy is that when the magic actually does happen, it's a HOLY SHIT moment, no matter if it's only a "simple" light spell.
But somehow having fantasy games with fireballs flying left and right supposedly adds "depth" to the game.

Anyway, I don't have high hopes for these games, they'll probably just hoping to cash-in thanks to the success of Game of Thrones.

 

[Burning Bridges]

What has races and magic to with rpgs anyway? I'll take a good rpg with only humans and no magic any day.

 

[Bitcher]

I don't quite see how you could derive interesting and original RPG mechanics from it.

Let's wait till Thursday, shall we? Then we will know more if something like this could work.

I've thought of that and I may agree, though the combat demo left me a bit hesitant.
As for what Black said, of course low fantasy adds to the setting/story (especially in vidya games, where such convention is still rare), I'm just not sure about the gameplay itself, where usually the more choices you have, the better.