PlayStation Productions is a new studio set up by Sony to convert its video game franchises into blockbuster films and television.
Its first slate of projects is already in production, according to Hollywood Reporter.
The idea is PlayStation will leverage its own links to sister company Sony Pictures and work on adaptations in-house, rather than farming franchises out to external studios, and do it all better than some of the dodgy game-to-film adaptations of the past.
“You can see just by watching older video game adaptations that the screenwriter or director didn’t understand that world or the gaming thing,” Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Shawn Layden said.
It’s also about keeping fans of PlayStation’s big franchises engaged while waiting for another game in the series.
“When fans beat a 40-50 hour game and have to wait three-four years for a sequel, we want to give them places they can go and still have more of that experience and see the characters they love evolve in different ways,” he added.
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Layden also mentioned Marvel (because of course) as an inspiration, and suggested he wanted to do for video game movies what Marvel had done for comic book hero films.
“We looked at what Marvel has done in taking the world of comic books and making it into the biggest thing in the film world,” he concluded. “It would be a lofty goal to say we’re following in their footsteps, but certainly we’re taking inspiration from that.”