The Game Awards 2024 were very exciting in a macro sense. The big reveals hit some high notes: The Witcher 4, a new Naughty Dog title, an Elden Ring co-op game, the return of Okami, the kind of technofuture return of Shadow of the Colossus, and more dominated the headlines. But whether it was exciting in a micro sense is an individual experience. For me, for a second, it was. Then suddenly, it wasn’t.
For some of my colleagues at TheGamer, their biggest hope was for Kingdom Hearts 4. Others are still holding a candle for Half-Life 3 or Silksong (they never learn). I always go into these shows with one foot back in the ’90s, hoping Tomb Raider or Spyro the Dragon show up. Then there are games you didn’t even know you wanted before you saw them. For me, that was Game of Thrones. But like Stannis Baratheon, the Prince That Was Promised turned out to be a false idol.
Kingsroad Will Not Seize Game Of Thrones’ Potential
When the trailer started up for Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, I didn’t realise it was for a game that had already been announced. I thought this was a new, true Game of Thrones game, the sort the series has always deserved but (despite some attempts) never gotten. The swell of the theme tune, especially alongside the depiction of a Stark-aligned northerner, made me nostalgic for the days when Game of Thrones was the finest television show ever produced. I miss those days, that feeling. I thought this game would bring it back.
Then doubt started to creep in. The graphics looked last gen, and even that was being kind. There didn’t seem to be much of a story beyond cameos with whichever actors were available, which in turn brought back disappointing memories of Telltale’s crack at the Game of Thrones mythos through the ill-fated House Forrester. And then The Bells rang. This was not a new game at all. This was Game of Thrones: Kingsroad.
I don’t have anything against Kingsroad, per se, aside from my well-earned aversion to IP-led mobile games. And technically, this was an announcement for it, though its existence had leaked and thus it didn’t feel new. It seemed like Game of Thrones does Genshin Impact, if a little grittier. It will need to exist forever, and features character whose fates we know and cannot interfere with, stripping it of any storytelling weight. It’s cosplay in a Game of Thrones world, not actually experiencing it.
I admit that Kingsroad looked more impressive than most mobile games do (though significantly below the current PC and console standard but without an art style to make up for it), and seemed to offer intriguing gameplay. It might be good. But it isn’t exciting, and feeling the rise and fall of hype in real time was like my own tragic wedding of whatever colour The Game Awards are. Orange, maybe.
Game Of Thrones Can’t Have Stakes This Way
I wrote only back in October of this year about how video games missed a major window to make a classic Game of Thrones video game, and have continued to stumble ever since. I don’t want to repeat myself – Westeros is one of the most interesting fantasy realms modern literature has constructed, and (despite George RR Martin’s inability to understand at what age children grow beards) is full of depth. The easy option would be to make a game set in the show. Pick one (Robb) or a handful of characters and let us play out their fate to the grisly end, but other paths exist too.
There are many Houses we only see glimpses of in the show, or never meet at all. House Velaryon and House Dayne are not in the show despite being of major importance in the books. Similarly, Lady Stoneheart is cut from the show, as was Victarion Greyjoy and (most bizarrely) Jon Connington. It’s my belief that the reason the ending falls apart is because Connington is a load-bearing character for the original plot, but unless Martin writes it, we’ll never know.
There’s also a lot of background within Game of Thrones. They planned for roughly 17 million spin offs for a reason. Lore exists for many time periods in A Song of Ice and Fire, and a game could easily plumb this well. A mobile game couldn’t, because it needs the IP hook first and foremost, so requires a not-quite-right Jaime Lannister to appear in the trailer. But a more original Game of Thrones game, the kind I thought I was getting at The Game Awards, could.
I ended up repeating myself anyway. Warner Bros. has declared Game of Thrones as one of the franchises it wants to focus on in gaming (alongside Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, and DC/Batman), and I hope sooner or later that means a real game. Not a mobile money spinner, not generic fluff with Daenerys’ face on it, a proper Game of Thrones game. If all we get is cash grabs, then gods help you, Warner Brothers. Now you are truly lost.
