The studio behind the mega popular Borderlands game held the license at one point for the cult classic film, and would have gone ahead with adapting it, except for one small problem. The game would have shut the studio down.
In an interview with Official Playstation Magazine, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford gave details how the company almost explored the possibility of pursuing the project.
Blade Runner was on. We had it too and we were like, No, we can’t. That game would’ve cost like $40m to make and sold about 600,000 units – and that would have been the end of us.
There’s no rational business model that would have allowed that to make sense, he added. If we’d made it with a business model that did work, it would not have been the Blade Runner game we all would have wanted.
Blade Runner had been previously adapted as a point and click/action game with “Noirish†overtones, but while the premise of pursuing rogue replicants remained intact, it was a title with completely different characters and few familiar faces.
Pitchford mentioned that Gearbox co-founder Brian Martell had even met with Blade Runner director Ridley Scott in Hollywood to discuss his plans. While the studio wont be developing a game based on his film anytime, they are busy with something else that Ridley Scott has been behind, a game based on the colonial marines from the second “Alien†movie that Scott directed.
Colonial Marines made an appearance earlier this year, and Sega Europe’s senior marketing VP Gary Knight has promised fans that it will be the definitive “Aliens†experience.
Source: Computerandvideogames.com
Last Updated: July 1, 2011
