George R.R. Martin truly took the world by storm with the creation of Game of Thrones. While most may have been engrossed in the fantasy world through HBO’s rendition of the novel, did you know Bethesda was offered to create and video game about it?
The creators of Fallout, Bethesda Softworks, were approached to make a Game of Thrones game. The video game publisher turned the offer down because they were busy working on Skyrim.
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks LLC is a video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. It was founded by Christian Weaver in 1986 and became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media by 1999.
By 2007, Bethesda Softworks acquired the Fallout franchise and developed Fallout 3, released in 2008. They released Skyrim on November 11, 2011, for several systems. The development of the game was under the direction of Todd Howard. (Source: Gamers at Work)
When Nintendo came out with the Switch, Bethesda released a version of Skyrim for the console. (Source: Cision)
The Deal with Game of Thrones
Bethesda was offered to develop George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones into a role-playing game. While gamers would have loved to experience Game of Thrones this way, Bethesda declined the opportunity. The company chose to make the Skyrim Series instead.
Todd Howard, the director of Bethesda Games, said that everyone was psyched to learn about the possible collaboration with Game of Thrones.
People in our studio liked it, and it seeped in a bit to what we were doing.
Todd Howard
But the company had already started developing Skyrim and was already in its progressive stages. They chose to say no to Game of Thrones because making a similar game would ultimately kill the chance of Skyrim blossoming in the gaming industry.
We wanted to do our world. That’s where we wanted to put out time into. Before we were even making Skyrim, there was a conversation with George R.R. Martin’s people. They thought it would be a good match—and so did we, actually—but then we thought about if that was where we wanted to spend our time. It was tempting, though.
Todd Howard
(Source: Essentially Sports)
Are There Any Game of Thrones Video Games?
Even if Bethesda declined to develop the RPG version of the game, several games were made for the franchise. Here are the top 3 titles:
A Game of Thrones: Ascent
In 2011, when the series first aired, they needed promotional mediums to influence people to hop on the bandwagon. A Game of Thrones: Genesis filled the role in the gaming industry. This version is a strategy game and was released for Windows PCs. But it was a flop compared to the newer games. Games of Thrones: Ascent was released after Genesis’ failure. It was available on iOS, Android, and even on Facebook. (Source: Screen Rant)
Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series
One of the most popular games of the franchise would be Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game. It was a full-3D game that banked on the strengths of the show and books: dialogue. Here the characters were voiced by the actors themselves. (Source: Screen Rant)
Reigns: Game of Thrones
Reign: Game of Thrones is entirely different from all the games released. The gameplay of this version is simple but quite exciting. It is a text-based mobile RPG that allows you to be a monarch in Westeros. (Source: Screen Rant)