While I firmly believe that most media shouldn’t cross mediums, sometimes the enthusiast in me really does get off on the idea of re-contextualizing great art. I want to see movies based on books, play games based on movies, hear minimalist symphonies composed to mimic Dadaist plays. Rarely, but I do. So, while the academic and critic in me is aghast at the idea of videogame adaptations of Philip K. Dick novels, the geek in me is ridiculously excited by the possibilities.
The Guardian is reporting that The Halcyon Company, current owners of the Terminator franchise (yes, all of it), has now gotten their mitts on the rights to Dick’s entire oeuvre. They are planning on, at the moment, two videogames based on as-of-yet unnamed Dick stories. Historically speaking, Dick’s work isn’t especially well-suited to adaptation (just look at the film versions of Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly.) Games, as a medium, are especially ill-suited to the writer’s circuitous fiction. Dick’s stories, despite their stylistic flourishes, rely greatly on the linearity of prose and to introduce audience agency into them will fundamentally alter them. It would be a different story if the man were still alive and penning these games himself, but he’s dead. 61 Frames Per Second would like The Halcyon Company to know that if they produce anything less than Ridley-Scott-Blade-Runner-quality, we’re coming after them.
Our thanks to GameLife for the news.
