It is genuinely galling how after all these years we've never received an officially licenced game based on what was the biggest fantasy franchise in the world some time ago. Game of Thrones was a monolith amidst giants, surpassing even the respect that Lord of the Ring maintained at it's absolute best- before trailing itself off a cliff and yadda yadda. You'd have thought that at some point over the years some opportunistic studio head would just smell the profitability on the air and go studio hunting, but rather disappointingly all we can do is stitch together existing experiences to try and get the feel that show elicited. At the time I flocked to Skyrim to get the look of the grand fantastical North we saw often during the early seasons, and The Witcher 2 for the feel of the mature, political consequential, plots popping around the landscape. (Of course, this was before 'The Wild Hunt' released and toned down the political ramifications somewhat.)
But, of course I hear you shout, there were officially licenced Game of Thrones games- ya big dunderhead! And whilst yes, in technicality that may be true- I consider such... efforts, about as 'true to heart' as the 'Pooh Blood and Honey' evokes the spirit of The Hundred Acre Woods. How can one consider these official in any meaningful way when both seem cobbled together by absolute disgraces to the entire artistry of games development as it stands? I'd endorse a great game, accept an average game, but a smear on the genre and franchise? Nah, that's got to get tucked under the rug. In fact, despite their timing, I'll call these adaptations of purely late season Game of Thrones and thus lament we never got an adapatation of the franchise at it's height.
2012's Game of Thrones, published by (I actually held my mouth in shock when I saw this-) ATLUS, is an actually god-awful single player RPG set during the events of the first series in an actually original story to the show- which is worth some small credit on it's own. (Someone tried somewhere.) It follows two members of the Night's Watch that no one cares about, (they exist in the show but you don't remember them and neither do I) sort of shambling about an ugly 'Two Worlds' reminiscent attempt at something like a 'Witcher' guided role playing game. There's nothing to boast of in the way of interesting gameplay ideas, I'm told the story is pretty rote but I'm not foolish enough to endure it myself to check and the fact that literally no one remembers it is evidence enough that the game had very little in the way of impact- which to be fair fits the somewhat low-key status of the show during it's first season so I guess they nailed that aspect, for what it's worth.
Then we have the Telltale Game of Thrones game which brough the classic narrative-based storybook style of the Telltale brand to Westeros in what might have been on of their least interesting titles to date. I don't know if the terms of the contract precluded experimentation or if by the point of that game the company was so firmly stuck on it's development cycle death-spiral that ended up killing the company stone dead- but there was such a waste of potential for what this entry could have achieved. The family they threw in to the main story were just discount Starks, most of the episodes were spinning wheels until black and white choices at the cliffhangers and the whole adventure felt ultimately worthless on the other side. I would go so far as to consider this one a 'game', at least; but nothing was brought to the table that wasn't also copied for a dozen other narrative games of the generation. The game disappointed me.
By actual second pick for a Game of Thrones game that doesn't deserve to be even considered an actual game would have to go to the grand 'Official Browser Based Game': Winter is Coming. To this day I do not believe they actual got the licence for the brand like they claim. They insist too much for that to be valid, like- Marvel games don't flaunt the fact that they're 'officially licenced' in their title and advertising- why should this game? Either because they're not licenced and are trying to make believe for the audience, or they genuinely cannot believe any idiot at HBO gave them the go-ahead to publish this and rake in money for the least possible amount of effort any human being could put behind an 'original game'.
If you didn't know, I actually made a blog covering that train wreck a few years ago- and the scars still haunt the edges of my psyche, pulling me under at my weakest and secreting away wisps of myself that I will never get back. It was a city builder, but somehow even lazier than your typical archetypal city builder that is cobbled together using an online blueprint I once tracked down for a blog on the matter. It featured lore inconsistencies out the ass, such as featuring a Weirwood Tree in the Red Keep and offered a string of utterly coma-induced 'tactical missions' which auto-battelled for you whilst you spent time uninstalling it. The 'game' was a pathetic time-hungry grift of a 'product' that sullied the brand's name to even exist. And it's what most people think of when they hear the words 'Game of Thrones' and 'Video game'. Which is just tragic.
Especially given that Game of Thrones Beyond the Wall came out shortly after the series wrapped and whilst it wasn't exactly what I would call a great game, it certainly packed a lot more quality in it's systems than 'Winter is Coming' could muster. Slapped together by the same team who put together Fallout Shelter, and who later put together a Westworld clone of Fallout Shelter that Bethesda sued, Behaviour Interactive put out a basic hero collector that kills time as good as anything else out there. I mean, does it capture the incredibly rich and engrossing heart of Game of Thrones which made that franchise special? No. But then, as we've established, it seems that absolutely no game does! It could have been a fine enough addendum to the franchise to keep the spirit of the series alive. And I suppose it was all the way up until House of the Dragon swooped onto the scene making such space fillers redundant. It shuttered last year.
Of all the attempts across the years it feels like no one really has given their all behind turning this franchise into a worthwhile interactive endeavour worth sticking your hat on. And I'm not generalising asking for an Open World RPG the style of which we typically ask for out of franchises like these, in fact I seriously question what an Open World RPG could even bring to a franchise like this aside from shirking down the scope of the world in order to 'fit' the constraints of a game world. I don't need another Skyrim with a Game of Thrones reskin. But maybe there's a solid prequel narrative that could be told in a Witcher 2 style focused action adventure, or maybe even a CRPG style RPG! We need something that evokes the elements of the franchise that make Game of Thrones a grounded fantasy story unlike any other.
But I suppose that moment is gone to the wind, isn't it? Despite the success of House of the Dragon, there is nowhere near the same level of goodwill afforded to this franchise to attract the sort of the investor hubbub needed to fund a game of that kind of necessary scale. And in the times when that would have really worked, HBO instead put all their eggs into the show's basket only to watch helplessly as their golden child showrunner punted that basket into a river and shot all of the eggs. In situations like these it falls to the fans to keep the show's spirit alive- and I may just have a contender for a fan project that does just that in an upcoming blog.
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