In adaptations of video games, any work of media (e.g. book, novel, film, anime and manga, television, theater, and machinima) that is based on a video game, usually incorporating elements of the game's narrative or gameplay.
Primarily video game films and television series can take several forms, such as live-action works (e.g. Sonic the Hedgehog live-action franchise, Resident Evil film series, and Gangs of London), traditionally animated such as films and television series based on the Pokémon franchise, computer-animated (e.g. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Arcane), stop-motion (e.g. Pokémon: Concierge), or machinima (e.g. Diary of a Camper).
There are also exist original video animations (OVAs) based on video games, such as Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls, Dead Space: Downfall, Halo Legends, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic, all of which may be released under direct-to-video form.
Sometimes video games also adapted into several literature forms, such as RPG Makers The Witch's House: The Diary of Ellen and Your Turn to Die -Death Game by Majority-.
Some video game films in the 1980s got off to the right start with Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! and Running Boy Star Soldier no Himitsu were the first two feature films adapted from video games. Both films were adapted from Nintendo Entertainment System games in 1986. Between 1991 and 1992, anime films and television series based on Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai were released.
Another adaptation is the very first live action film Mirai Ninja, a 1988 Japanese film based on a Namco arcade game of the same name, despite being a direct-to-video release.[1]
The first American live action film based on a video game, the eponymous Super Mario Bros., was released on May 28, 1993, to both critical and commercial failure; Critics including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert lambasted the film's lack of faithfulness to the source material[2] and also criticized for being too dark and violent.[3]
Video games adapted into films gained first experience in the Hollywood film industry after Super Mario Bros., one of the first auteurs of video game adaptations is Paul W. S. Anderson, who took advantage of the 1995 film Mortal Kombat in hope that would become a summer blockbuster; ultimately, the film gained average critical and commercial success. Previous video game adaptations such as Double Dragon, Street Fighter, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider had received particularly negative reviews but gaining mainstream success while Double Dragon failed to break even.[4][5]
In mid-1990s, Diary of a Camper, based on a video game Quake, was first introduced as a non-interactive game demo file, created by the Rangers, a clan or group of video game players. This led to inspired machinima filmmakers and spurred more complex machinima works in opposite of video games as a medium of filmmaking.[6]: 13, 16 [7]: 32
Animated films and shows also began gaining mainstream success. The first introduced as an anime series of the same name Pokémon, became the most successful video game adaptation of all time in retrospective years.[8] Arc the Lad was also introduced in 1999. The anime films Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994), Pokémon: The First Movie (1998) and Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (1999) became internationally successful. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) was a major milestone in motion-capture computer animation, but was a box office failure.
Video game film adaptations in Hollywood gained notoriety during this period due to large number of films drew mixed-to-negative or panned response, often for their screenplays, casting choices, and lack of originality or loyalty to the source material; many deeming it as a "curse", which plagues adaptations to critical or commercial failure.[9][10] Among the most notorious video game filmmakers is Uwe Boll, a German writer, director, and producer whose works include House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Postal, and Far Cry, all of which were almost universally panned by critics and are considered among the worst films ever made. In 2016, he retired from filmmaking, citing market failures and funding difficulties.[11] Similarly, Paul W. S. Anderson has gained a reputation for his panned video game adaptations in the 21st century, particularly Resident Evil series and most recently Monster Hunter.[12]Similar to comic book-based films in the past (especially from 1980s), films based on video games prior to 2020 tended to carry a reputation of lackluster quality and receive negative reaction from both film critics and fans of the source material.[13] This is generally due to difficulties in adopting a story meant to be played interactively into a linear movie-going experience.[14]
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Another likely reason for the failure of video game adaptations is that structural conversion from video game to film format can be challenging for filmmakers. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Nintendo franchises including Mario and Zelda, said in a 2007 interview:
I think that part of the problem with translating games to movies is that the structure of what makes a good game is very different from the structure of what makes a good movie. Movies are a much more passive medium, where the movie itself is telling a story and you, as the viewer, are relaxing and taking that in passively. Whereas video games are a much more active medium where you are playing along with the story. ... I think that video games, as a whole, have a very simple flow in terms of what’s going on in the game. We make that flow entertaining by implementing many different elements to the video game to keep the player entertained. Movies have much more complex stories, or flow, to them, but the elements that affect that flow are limited in number. So I think that because these surrounding elements in these two different mediums vary so greatly, when you fail to take that into account then you run into problems.[15]
In an interview with Fortune in August 2015, Miyamoto said, "Because games and movies seem like similar mediums, people’s natural expectation is we want to take our games and turn them into movies. … I’ve always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different."[16]
Despite the mixed success, some of the more successful film adaptations during this time include the Resident Evil series (2002–2016), Silent Hill (2006), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and Warcraft (2016).
On the other hand, anime based on video games became very popular during this period, particularly anime based on visual novels. These included Kanon (2006–2007), Higurashi: When They Cry (2006–2013), Fate/stay night (2006–2015), Clannad (2007–2009) and Steins;Gate (2011–2014). Despite its success of video game adaptations in anime, Yosuga no Sora and School Days, both produced in eroge, are the only ones of the most notorious and controversial examples of the video game adaptation, particularly its depiction of graphic sexual content, violence and mature subject matter (e.g. incest and teenage sexuality) in plot.[17]
Observers noted a substantial uptick in the critical and commercial success of video game adaptations in the late 2010s and 2020s.[18][19][20][21] Until 2019, no video game film – live-action or animated – had received a Rotten Tomatoes "fresh" rating, with a score over 60%. Three films since, Detective Pikachu, The Angry Birds Movie 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog have been able to break into the "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[22][23] Both Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog have posted better-than-expected domestic takes,[24] with Sonic having the highest domestic opening through 2020.[25] Sonic's success led to its sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releasing in April 2022 and beating the first film's domestic opening.[26] Upon these films improved since 2019 but not only ones who also received likely below 75% of fresh rating from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, Werewolves Within (2021) took over the record as the best-reviewed film based on a video game.[27] Following these two films, new adaptations of games into films and television series became more successful and showed that adaptations that held to a game's story but did not try to maintain the video game aspects were more popular with audiences.
Creators of film and television adaptations found quickly that to help appeal these shows to video game audiences, they had to assure the work showed respect for the video game it was based on, both in narratives and appearance, following the online fan backlash to the original appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog (known colloquially as "Ugly Sonic") that had been shown in the original trailers for Sonic the Hedgehog, which the studio reworked before the theatrical release.[28] Video game adaptations in film and television have also led to growth of players in the original video game work, such as the case with Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout games.[29][30]
Shows were all critically-praised series based on video games since 2017,[31][32][33][34] allows American streaming companies began to air television series based on video games. Successful animated series during this time include Castlevania (2017–2021), Arcane (2021–2024) and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022).[35] The first success of a live-action series is a British crime drama series Gangs of London (2020–present). Successful high-budget live-action series include The Last of Us (2023–present) and Fallout (2024–present).[36][37]
Though video game films are critically panned, they tend to do well from the international take at box offices. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, based on the Mario game franchise, holds the highest take of any video game adaptation with US$1.36 billion, and was considered the most profitable film of 2023 by Deadline Hollywood, while the six Resident Evil films hold the highest take for a live-action series of US$1.2 billion on an average production budget between US$30 to 50 million and Pokémon is the overall highest-grossing video game film franchise with US$1.5 billion[38][39]
Only six films have grossed more than $400 million in the box office worldwide as of April 2023: Warcraft (2016), Rampage (2018), Detective Pikachu (2019), Uncharted (2022), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), with the latter becoming the first video game film to ever pass the $1 billion mark, making it one of the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time.
Video game adaptations have top-notched the main recognitions in major award ceremonies, most primarily the divisions of Emmy Awards, started in the late-2010s.