Sony Interactive Launches Film, TV Studio to Adapt Video Game Projects

Sony Interactive recently launched PlayStation Productions, a studio tasked with adapting the company’s video game properties into films and television shows.


PlayStation Productions is headed by Asad Qizilbash and overseen by SIE chairman of Worldwide Studios Shawn Layden. It’s reportedly already working on its first slate of projects on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, Calif.


“We’ve got 25 years of game development experience and that’s created 25 years of great games, franchises and stories,” Layden told The Hollywood Reporter. “We feel that now is a good time to look at other media opportunities across streaming or film or television to give our worlds life in another spectrum.”


Sony’s move seems part of a larger trend among video game publishers who are showing more interest in adapting their properties. Nintendo is currently working on a “Super Mario Bros.” animated film with Illumination Entertainment. Meanwhile, Ubisoft has a number of projects in the works, including a live-action “Skull & Bones” television show and films based on its “Watch Dogs,” “Far Cry,” and “Rabbids” IPs. Then, there’s “The Witcher” television adaptation coming to Netflix later this year. It stars actor Henry Cavill as protagonist Geralt of Rivia and is expected to air eight episodes during its first season.Warner Bros. released another video game-based film, “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu,” earlier this month. It’s made an estimated $287.4 million worldwide so far and was at the top film at the international box office for the second weekend in a row.