After the success that was Telltale’s The Walking Dead, most figured it was only a matter of time before the developer expanded to even bigger properties. Through that episodic adventure game, Telltale had not only shown themselves to be competent storytellers, but also that they can adapt a property with an appropriate amount of reverence and care.
The first signs of Telltale’s new found development prowess came in the form of two pretty big VGX 2013 announcements, one for Tales from the Borderlands and the other for an adaptation of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Both announcements served as further proof that Telltale’s star is on the rise, and more importantly left us eager for the developer’s future.
As far as what players can expect in the future beyond Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands Telltale doesn’t have much to announce…yet. But CTO and Co-Founder Kevin Bruner did reveal which property he’d most like to adapt: James Bond.
James Bond, in Bruner’s eyes, is a character and property that lends itself perfectly to the adventure game. Although James Bond video games tend to focus on high body counts and bombastic shootouts, the Bond films and novels tend to honor the character’s spy roots. Bruner believes those ideas could be easily adapted to a video game, one that he would love to see Telltale make.
There’s no question that James Bond is one of the biggest properties in the world, and if Telltale Games did snag the development rights they would further increase their profile. But, at the same time, there’s a clear distinction between licensing a strong property and doing it justice. Game of Thrones, for example, is a property that lends itself well to Telltale’s particular brand of branching narrative gameplay, whereas James Bond might not. For as much as the character does do plenty of “spy stuff,” he’s still a very active character.
“I’m a giant James Bond fan and I’m always frustrated by games that make him a mass murderer. He’s a super-spy, and that’s a different skillset. The films make him less of a mass murderer, and there’s not much killing in the books - more spying and intrigue.”
Of course, this is all just speculation and wishful thinking on Bruner’s part — there is no James Bond deal in place. That being said, Telltale was able to nail down the rights to Game of Thrones — which they deemed a “dream IP” — so who’s to say they won’t be able to net another high profile property?
Would you like to see a James Bond game from Telltale? What is your vision for the game?
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Source: OXM
