Posted in: Movies | Tagged: film, mass effect, video games

Why We Won't See a Mass Effect Movie in the Future

Of all the video game properties that are making their way to film, it looks like we shouldn't expect to see Mass Effect make the cut.

Back in 2010, EA Games sold the rights to adapt the popular video game franchise Mass Effect to Legendary Pictures, which essentially could have initiated a potential cinematic franchise (best seen in long-running film and game series like Resident Evil). While projects like BioShock have died off due to budget concerns and CGI restrictions, Mass Effect has only suffered delays due to exploring potential stories.

With the constraints of an origin film, there tends to be a lot of information plugging, and it doesn't always translate as a success in the box office (looking at you Monster Hunters!) Realizing this struggle was a major hiccup, the video game director Mac Walters recently opened up in an interview with Business Insider about why we won't be seeing Mass Effect in cinematic form. Walters explains, "It's such an expansive world, and so many people I know in the TV and film industry have reached out to ask me when we're going to do it and saying we've got to do it," adding, "If you're going to tell a story that's as fleshed out as 'Mass Effect,' TV is the way to do it. There's a natural way it fits well with episodic content."

Expanding on the choice to opt for television over the plans for a film, he tells the publication, "When we build out a 'Mass Effect' game, we have a backbone or an overall story that we want to tell, but each level or mission is like its own TV episode. It doesn't get written ahead of time. It gets written at the time that we get to it. So it gets added to the main story, and sometimes the main story gets adjusted because we did something really cool in that 'episode.' So long-form storytelling is a great place for game franchises."

Do you agree that long-form storytelling works better for video game franchises, or do you enjoy the idea of having both?

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