Wheel of Time fantasy books to be games

By Robert Purchese Published 12 November, 2008

And films. At least three, apparently.

Film studio Red Eagle Entertainment plans to adapt the immensely popular Wheel of Time fantasy novels into videogames.

These will be developed in-house alongside the big-screen productions, according to VentureBeat - and Red Eagle plans to deliver a new game with every film based on the franchise it releases.

There are even plans for spin-off massively-multiplayer online game.

The Wheel of Time series, written by Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney), started with The Eye of the World in 1990. And the film adaptation of this book is already in production.

To date, the series has sold over 44 million copies around the world, with the 12th and final book set to launch in 2009; this will be written by Brandon Sanderson, as Jordan passed away in September 2007.

The Wheel of Time books are long and detailed, and feature magic and characters based on European and Asian mythology: stuff like Hinduism, Buddhism and all that. Maybe there are magical rat people.

We expect an RPG, then, although any concrete details for the project are yet to be announced. Red Eagle is rather confident of its chances, though.

"We've got a huge running start with this property," said Rick Selvage of Red Eagle.

"We expect to have a game based on every movie, and we expect no less than three movies, though that depends on how well each does."

Selvage, who used to manage IBM's global media and entertainment business, has said the game-plans have been met with enthusiasm, and he wants to flesh out the videogame teams in the next couple of months. But not with just anyone - he "wants to hire the rock stars".

Incidentally, Red Eagle Entertainment is not to be confused with Red Eagle Films, which counts "In-'N-Out" and "Maximum Stretch" among its catalogue. Wolfgang Bang directed "Maximum Stretch"; are you sure you don't remember it?

This isn't the first time Wheel of Time has been adapted into a game, incidentally. Those with long memories may recall Legend Entertainment's Unreal Engine-based PC FPS of the same name, based on Jordan's work.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • anomagnus #1 3 years ago

    no disrespect to the dead, but the quality of the series simply collapsed after book 5/6

    i bought book 11, and read it in a few hour by simply speed reading it, until i came to rands bit

    very dull

    the malazan series is the true master

  • Triggerhappytel #2 3 years ago

    I love the series (yes there was a very weak period, but I had to stick it out and know what happened...), but can't see it doing anything other than sucking as games. I was thinking about the films the other day and was wondering whether they'll try to condense the plot or perhaps just leave out shit loads and skim over the major happenings. Either way, I don't want 12 epic films, so can't see any other feasible way of doing this.

  • Macross #3 3 years ago

    bah knows mat is the best character with the best stories ;)

    love the books, but yes i agree they can ramble on.

  • mazk #4 3 years ago

    Books one to seven are simply brilliant. Cant wait for the movie and games.

    Books eight, nine and ten though, are so slow paced. There not bad as such - they're well written and don't ruin the story - but there must be about 200 pages of action in all three books. Considering there is about 2,500 pages across the three books, it shows how much the story just doesn't progress, and subsequently are really b-o-r-i-n-g.

    Book eleven though, is a total return to form, fast paced and action packed. I think this bodes well for the series as a whole, as it points to last book also being good. And when it comes to film (and games) the producers can just condense the boring three books into one.

    My other favorite book series - otherland - is getting made into a game too. It's agood time for SF and Fantasy!!

  • oxymoron #5 3 years ago

    was a slob and got the unnabridged audio readings, listened to 1-4, thought they were great.

    will make good films for sure if done properly, but i reckon will be crap games (unless done with a great deal of care and attention).

  • ExplodingClown #6 3 years ago

    Didn't they already do a Wheel of Time game? Seem to remember one.

  • Clive_Dunn #7 3 years ago

    Yeah, pretty sure they've already done a game. Some sort of crappy EA magic shooter if I remember correctly.

  • Hunam #8 3 years ago

    I remember the game too.

  • SeesThroughAll #9 3 years ago

    DON'T RUIN IT

  • curtlikesmeat #10 3 years ago

    YES!

  • curtlikesmeat #11 3 years ago

    And, the old game released a while back was pretty good for its time and has been included on a few "best games no one played" style lists.

    To concur, I hope they don't fuck it up, but since it's merely a spin off from the film it probably will be shit. They'll probably do what the Golden Compass did and fuck up the first thereby scuppering all hopes of any more. Facist pigs.

  • sneetch #12 3 years ago

    @curtlikesmeat
    They'll probably do what the Golden Compass did and fuck up the first thereby scuppering all hopes of any more.

    I thought Golden Compass was an excellent film. I have no idea how good or bad an adaptation of the book(s) it was.

    As for the Wheel of Time I read as far as book 5 or 6 I quit when I realised that it was pretty much the same as the previous one. That was a long time ago and perhaps it was unfair but I just got tired of all the bickering in the books and the fact that the characters seemed to be going around in circles.

  • spudsbuckley #13 3 years ago

    The first poster covers it in a nutshell.

    Books 1-4 where alright (even though the first was pretty much just LOTR) and everything after that was just braid-pulling boredom :(

    The Malazan books poop all over it and every other fantasy series from a great height.

  • space_ace #14 3 years ago

    it's the year 2000 again? :)

  • nuffmon #15 3 years ago

    Consistently excellent books but i really can't see how they can make films out of them. You will really miss a lot of the story. Not sure how well a new author is going to be. When is someone going to do something with Raymond E Feist's stuff?

  • Fedos #16 3 years ago

    I've read up to book 7, but I really liked the early aura of this series, particularly books 1 and 2, as I actually can't decide which of those I like the best. Even though I know the films won't be faithful to the books, I still would like to see films based on at least the first 3, don't think I'll be interested in games based on the films though. And I agree with some of the other posters in saying that Steven Erikson's A Tale of the Malazan series is the better offering, though if Robert Jordan would have maintained the style he set forth in books 1-3 I think he would have given Erikson a run for his money in terms of my favorite modern fantasy author, as Jordan too was capable of writing some simply breathtaking scenes.

  • Widge #17 3 years ago

    I started to read these on the premise of them being awesome.... then found out that the quality dived right towards the end and never really picked them up again. Alright stuff, but nothing I'd go mad for.

  • NegativeZero #18 3 years ago

    The old FPS wasn't a terrible game, but didn't gel with the universe whatsoever. It had so many things which were contrary to the setting, stupid, or just plain wrong. Visually it was pretty close but there was no attention to detail at all.

    I hope they make these RPGs or something, and not just shitty movie tie-in shovelware.

  • TriggerHippie #19 3 years ago

    Yeah I think I managed to finish book 4, just. It was really tough going after a while and I gave up on the series. Too many fantastic books out there to have to slog through the rest of these.

  • curtlikesmeat #20 3 years ago

    @NegativeZero - shovelware? lol I like that.

    @sneetch - the Golden Compass film missed a lot compared to the book. TGC book was a bit like The Simpsons in that you could take more from it if you were an adult as there was deeper stuff going on there, but children could also enjoy it on a basic level. The film basically missed the deeper stuff and went straight for the kids.

    About the old WoT game - one thing I do remember, the soundtrack was really good. Can't remember who did it but some band / musicians did it especially for the game in a time when specially made soundtracks played with actual instruments wasn't as common as it is now in games. It had a celtic kind of vibe to it and I still listen to it now.

  • Boom #21 3 years ago

    Like a few have said, the series declined rapidly after the 5th book. I'm glad someone is going to finish the last book, but he must have a mountain to climb to close off so many plot threads.

    Also, again like others have mentioned, Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series is very good.

  • Eurytus #22 3 years ago

    "The Malazan books poop all over it and every other fantasy series from a great height."

    Hell no. Whilst the Malazan books contain some very good ideas the characters are paper thin, the plots often nonsensical and Erikson is obsessed with creating new and improved uber characters every book. "this guy is the awesome, no wait, this guy is even more awesome. He can take out 100 assassins single handed." Nearly every military character is a copy of the last, each war weary and spouting philosophy. And the Mhybe storyline in Memories of Ice is probably the worst and most boring plotline I have ever read, and I have read Robert Jordan.

    The best fantasy series currently being published is George RR Martin's A Song Of Ice and Fire. Each character in it is so well written that its worth a whole book's worth of Erikson's.

  • sn3jk #23 3 years ago

    so movies on the first first 3-4 books then? since everything after those were pants.

    @Eurytus
    Although i agree that George RR Martins books are good fun and entertaining, i find his characters to be far to black or white. I like find the malazan characters to have far more depth.
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/08 @ 11:13

  • mechamonkey #24 3 years ago

    Terrible series. Nothing happens. I love fantasy novels but absolutely hated these, god knows why I even pushed on and read them all..

  • mechamonkey #25 3 years ago

    I wish the David Eddings Belgarath universe would be used in a game.

  • mexalen #26 3 years ago

    I love WoT.
    Some may consider the slower-paced books as boring, but they just build up the characters and move them all into position. I know no other series with such a cast of characters all with an in-depth view what makes them tick.

    Lord of the rings is about the size as 2 WoT-Books. They were not able to get all of it (yes, I admit they accomplished telling a compelling story) into the 3 films, how are they supposed to tell the Story of Wheel of Time in 3 movies?! They need to eradicate like half the characters and most of the plot!

    Oh, and movie-to-game conversations usually suck anyway...

  • Bigglesworth #27 3 years ago

    @mechamonkey
    Your posts do not compute. I thought Eddings was a good author until I read Jordan.

    @mazk
    100% correct. Book 10 is outrageous; I don't know about the the paperback but you can practically glean every important event just by reading the synopsis on the hardback's jacket! Overall though it's still the best fantasy series around.

    I'm optimistic about a game, if not so much about films for the reasons given by others. With such a large fanbase though, I'm not sure anything will be good enough to prevent inevitable nerdrage.

  • Eurytus #28 3 years ago

    @sn3jk
    Although i agree that George RR Martins books are good fun and entertaining, i find his characters to be far to black or white. I like find the malazan characters to have far more depth.

    I don't understand that view at all. Martin's characters are probably the most grey in fantasy. You can take almost any "evil" character and they have a different side to them, a perspective from which their views are defendable. Take Jaime, goes from an absolute villain in book 1 (when viewed by others) to very complex by book 4.
    On the flip side many of the "heroes" have significant flaws.

  • caspa #29 3 years ago

    I love these books, can't wait to see films/games.
    Also book 11 was much better then 6-10, can't wait for the end, if I'll be a little saddened :-(

    Fedos I'd love to see Feist's stuff made into a film.

  • evild_edd #30 3 years ago

    On my first read-through, currently on book 10. Do believe there's been a load of unnecessary pages across the books, but never found myself bored with them.

    +1 for Mat being the best character (though I have a soft spot for Aviendha as well!!!)

    Not sure films/games would work. Actually, an open-world version where you witnessed the world changing around the central (Taveren) characters would be interesting, but a linear, follow-the-plot, style adventure game doesn't appeal :/