OT: Bethesda turned down GAME OF THRONES licence

[Werthead]

Interesting interview here where Todd Howard reveals that Bethesda considered making a Song of Ice and Fire game between Fallout 3 and Skyrim, but ultimately decided against it so they could concentrate on their own IP. He reveals quite a few people at Bethesda are big fans of the books and that it may have been a good fit for them, but it wasn't to be.

This could have been interesting. It would have been a great-looking game, no doubt, and it would have had a lot of resources behind it. However, Bethesda don't have very good writers, and a badly-written ASoIaF game would have hurt much more than the badly-written Oblivion or mediocre Fallout 3 (in writing terms). Based on the timing, they would also have likely used the Gamebryo engine, which is not great.

It remains to be seen if Cyanide can do a good job with their RPG (I do not have high hopes, but you never know), but this is an interesting 'what if?' scenario.

[Heart of Madness]

Cyanide goesn't really care about their fans. They just want money.

[Evilstein]

Cyanide goesn't really care about their fans. They just want money.

No, FOCUS doesn't care ! But with Game Workshop, we call them The Unholy Trinity... Worshipers of Mammon !



I follow Blood Bowl since the begining and all the fans where desapointed about their behaviour, Lying, No Mod allowed, no event, no communication, they allowed the cheaters....No compréhension of the game etc...And at this time the game is not finish and will never be...

[lh197]

A bethesda ASOIAF rpg is pretty much my dream game

[Heart of Madness]

A Betheseda LOTR game is needed desperately.

It is known.

[flopsies]

A Betheseda LOTR game is needed desperately.

It is known.

It is known!

[Gurkhal]

I'm also worried about him taking on Barristan Selmy. Exactly what level is that guy?

Don't know but its probably pretty high, and he does have the kingsguard prestige class as well. Will be a close one.

[Timur Amir]

Don't know but its probably pretty high, and he does have the kingsguard prestige class as well. Will be a close one.

not to mention after all those Mereen side-quests...

[TouchyAndalou]

I never understood why Ned didn't cast his Lvl_19_win spell. Must have been saving it.

I think a RPG game set in the ASOIAF universe could potentially be fantastic and it's a shame Bethesda didn't throw all their resources at it, because I think they'd have the best shot at doing it justice.

I'm envisioning some sort of scenario where you're a non-book character (like some unaffiliated Hedge knight) whose story intersects the happenings of the books, not directly follows them. You've got an open world full of various factions Houses) to interact with, each of whom have some kind of a diplomacy rating with one another as well as with yourself. You can do missions for all these factions, which will potentially impact upon your standing with other factions. Like in Fallout 3, you'll see soldiers from all the factions out on your travels, who may be openly hostile with one another. There's some main storyline to follow, of course, but seriously, the fun would mainly be had in just wandering about and exploring Westeros. And how cool would it be to finally be summoned before Tywin Lannister or to just happen across the Hound in some Inn during your travels?

It sounds like a daunting project to make a game out of such massively scaled source material, but many of the elements required are already present to some degree in Oblivion and Fallout. Oblivion set in the ASOIAF world? I don't think I'd ever stop playing.

[lh197]

That too. Basically only Bethesda should make RPG games.

[Ghostlord]

That too. Basically only Bethesda should make RPG games.

Ever heard of Bioware, yea they've made a few RPGs too.

[lh197]

Ever heard of Bioware, yea they've made a few RPGs too.

OOPS. It's not like I ever had an ME2 based avatar on here that was foolish, Bioware would make an insane ASOIAF game, their writing is much much better IMO

[Werthead]

Obsidian (the modern incarnation of Black Isle) would do a great job, if they could use a game engine that wasn't terribly bugged. Ironically, they did create such an engine for Dungeon Siege III and are now using it to create an RPG based on a best-selling fantasy novel series...but they're doing Wheel of Time rather than ASoIaF. Missed opportunity there

As for BioWare, they've said they used ASoIaF as inspiration for Dragon Age, but they don't want to go back to doing licensed games again (The Old Republic being an exception, obviously, as LucasArts offered them a totally ridiculous budget to make the game: over $100m was what I heard), so they wouldn't make a full SoIaF game themselves. People from Relic also expressed admiration for the series and apparently at one time brainstormed how you'd turn the setting into an RTS as a though exercise, but never had plans to actually buy the rights (they want to concentrate on their WH40K work and possibly more Company of Heroes stuff).

[TheRedViper]

this news make me sad

[Heart of Madness]

If LOTR games were semi-decent, I might not be complaining to Bethesda, but too bad they are not semi-decent.

[Gurkhal]

If Bethesda made a ASOIAF game then I would hope they got hold of better writers than they had for Oblivion, because the story part in that game compared to say Morrowind is just aweful. There are some gems but they are hidden pretty deep.

[Harpsichord]

I'm just gonna state that there's barely a decent RPG dev still going and then walk away quietly

[Murfmurf]

Mmmm Bioware/Black Isle ASOIAF game would be amazing. Bethesda would be pretty good too!

As to bad writers, I agree and disagree. As somone who actually works writing computer game stories/dialogue, Bethesda do a pretty sterling job in terms of narrative construction. I imagine it's an incredible headache piecing together all those strands to make such an open game as Oblivion or Fallout.

[thespaniard]

bah forget company of heroes the germens always win with their stupid panther spam
ASOFAI ALL THE WAY
unless they mess it up like DoW2
and Bioware could do ASOFAI it could be about the free cities maybe or at least have them as possible areas to go to or as a backstory

[Gurkhal]

unless they mess it up like DoW2

EDITED: I disagree.