Noticed this on Follow the Raven and thought it was too strange not to reiterate. It looks like the videogame rights to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has been picked up by a company called Cyanide:

Cyanide, an independent video game studio, and George R. R. Martin today announced their partnership to create the first-ever video games inspired by the author’s award-winning, international bestselling ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ fantasy series. Under the terms of the agreement, Cyanide has obtained the exclusive rights to develop ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ video games for next-generation consoles and PC, and in collaboration with George R.R Martin, development has begun.

“We are all huge fans of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, so it is a true honour for our teams to be entrusted with creating the first video games inspired by this masterpiece” stated Patrick Pligersdorffer, Managing Director of Cyanide. “The twists and turns of the plot will allow us to deliver an experience which can be enjoyed by both long-time fans as well as gamers new to the series.”

Published most notably by Bantam Books in North America and Voyager Books in the United Kingdom, the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novels have been translated into more than twenty languages (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian) and have been nominated for numerous prizes. Set in a world where nothing is simply black and white, the rich web of characters makes it an ideal background for numerous genres of video games.

‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ has already been adapted into a card game and a board game. More recently, HBO acquired the rights with the intent of turning the novels into a television series.

About George R. R. Martin

George R.R. Martin is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He started writing in the early 1970s and his first novel ‘Dying of the Light’ was published in 1977. More information on the author is available through his website -www.georgerrmartin.com

Regarding Cyanide Studio

Cyanide is a private French video game development studio founded in 2000. Based in Paris, France and in Montreal, Canada, 70 employees are working on the two continents. Well-known for its sports sim such as the popular Cycling Manager® Series or Pro Rugby Manager® Series, Cyanide is also responsible for the famous Chaos League®, and the recent Hack’n’Slash Loki® released in end-year 2007. In 2009, Cyanide will release Blood Bowl®, an adaptation of the famous Games Workshop’s board game, already awaited as a potential great hit, the annual edition of Pro Cycling Manager – Tour de France 2009®, and finally its first online free-to-play fast action MMOG, Dungeon Party®!

Erm… okay? Do we really need a videogame based on the series? Now, if they were to make an intricately plotted Turn-based strategy game, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, that establishes its own place in the mythos of Martin’s world (perhaps far in the past, exploring an untouched upon aspect of Westeros?), that would be okay. More likely, though, we’ll have an action game featuring Jon Snow fighting the Others, or something else that completely misses the point of the novels. Also, can’t we at least wait until the series is finished before we start tainting its memory?

Put me firmly in the skeptical party, here.

Discussion
  • Texcap May 13, 2009 at 7:33 am

    Always glad to meet a fellow turn-based strategy fan.

    Speaking of which, I’m hoping that the very first thing they “nix” is anything even remotely associated with the idea of a hack-n-slash and that, as a collaboration, Martin can direct them to a sliver of his world a little more unexplored with his extensive backdrop to work within. I’m all for the strategy idea given the immersion, exploration and fine detail that they can afford but I’ll wait for more until holding on to that hope to tightly.

  • Adam Whitehead May 13, 2009 at 7:55 am

    GRRM has held off on selling the rights for more than a decade because previous companies had come to him suggesting they turn it into crappy action titles, which he refused. He has only ever said he’d sell the rights if the company were to develop a role-playing game or a strategy title, so I imagine the game will be in one of those two genres.

    If you own MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR and its expansion KINGDOMS, you can actually fight for control of Westeros right now with this mod:

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=256115

    It’s pretty damn good (although that’s an early build), and if Cyanide went down a similar route with their own custom-designed game, it could be interesting.

  • Adam Whitehead May 13, 2009 at 7:57 am

    GRRM has said he’s received offers before, but only for crappy action games and he’s always turned them down. He only ever wanted ASoIaF to be an RPG or strategy game, so I imagine the game will be in one of those genres.

    Turn-based strategy fans can, however, fight for control of Westeros right now if they own a copy of MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR and its expansion KINGDOMS:

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=256115

    That’s a very strong mod which allows you to pick one of the Great Houses and fight for control of Westeros.

  • aidan May 13, 2009 at 8:01 am

    I agree. I think that the setting lends itself well to grand stories and you’re not going to find that in a hack-n-slash game. I’m worried we’re going to see Gears of War re-skinned.

    And I couldn’t agree more about the setting. Let them tool around with some area of the world/history that Martin doesn’t plan to touch upon and make sure it doesn’t effect the actual canon.

    I’ll be watching this project closely, if it even sees the light of day.

  • aidan May 13, 2009 at 8:36 am

    That’s fantastic news, Adam. If there’s one thing I respect about George the most, it’s that when dealing with the aSoIaF license, he holds out until he gets something truly worthwhile (HBO being the best example) and he’s not afraid to cut ties with projects that aren’t of the highest quality (the Dabel Brothers calendars, for instance.)

    Also, for some reason my spam filter kept catching your comments. Sorry about that, they should all go through fine now!

  • Joe Sherry May 13, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    First person shooter. Don’t question it, just run with it.

    I’m totally sold on a Final Fantasy Tactics style game, though. Would love it. Especially if it would appear on the PS3 (which I expect to own). Otherwise…I might have to purchase my first ever game for a computer. Ever.

  • James (Speculative Horizons) May 13, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Put me in the sceptical camp as well. A first-person shooter would be an absolute waste of the license. It would have to be a turn-based affair, like the Total War games, where you control a whole faction and have to raise armies and do the whole resource-management malarkey. That would clearly have potential.

  • Joe Sherry May 13, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Well, sure, but tell me that a FPS Ice and Fire game wouldn’t be conceptually hilarious?

    However the game turns out, it should be more than simple raise the army / resource management. Any game can do that. There should be something that makes it different / special to tie it to Westeros besides the name on the box and that there are Lannisters and Starks.

    Oh – if it is a strategy game, I think ALL the major characters should be playable. Don’t force me to be Rob Stark (unless there is an unlockable mode to give me full game access to everyone)

  • aidan May 13, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Joe,

    I’d rather a game where you played as none of the main characters. Re-interpreting the novels story/characters in videogame form would just lead to disappointment all around.

  • Joe Sherry May 13, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    Hmm. Good point. Which would have to set the whole thing before the series (maybe in the Dunk & Egg timeframe)…because you can’t set it after and I don’t think you can set it during.

    I’d be as irritated if Tyrion walked by but I’m random shlub as I would by a failed attempt to render the characters as playables. Yeah, actually, I don’t think that would work.

    But, I don’t think i’d want it set someplace in the world / during the main timeline, but not really touching the main continuity. I’d be building my empire and oh, I just received a missive stating that the Red Wedding just occurred. Great.

  • sean May 13, 2009 at 10:37 pm

    final fantasy tactics….ahhhh, perhaps the greatest game ever. Very good call aidan.

    The other option worth mentioning (still turn based strategy) would be along the model of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Ironically, i suggested the Romance of three kingdoms adaptation of Song of Ice and Fire to my twin brother less then 2 wks ago, would be such a great vehicle to transport the book to a game.

    I understand ur logic behind not using the characters, but realistically, if you are going to pay for the name of the book and then sell it to fans of R.R. Martin trying to grab an audience that wouldn’t otherwise pick up the game, it would seem a little underhanded to then not put thier favorite characters into the game. And if not underhanded than still a bad business decision to say the least.

    If you haven’t checked out the ROTK series everyone, give it a shot. Be forewarned, however, simply viewing screen shots of it online, or even live action cannot truly capture how enveloping it is to actually play. Especially if you are a sucker for creating your own characters like i am.