Summary

  • The Wheel of Time franchise is getting a new video game adaptation, promising an open-world AAA RPG experience.
  • Fans can expect the game to cover everything in the books and additional backstory, with it said to be spending approximately 3 years in development.
  • To ensure success, the game could draw inspiration from similar successful titles like The Witcher 3 and The Elder Scrolls.

Among fantasy's literary properties, The Wheel of Time franchise stands tall as one of the most seminal and enduring ones. Perhaps rivaled only by Game of Thrones, Robert Jordan's epic series spans over twenty years and across more than a dozen novels and other supplementary material. The Wheel of Time has stood the test of time, remaining a popular name in high fantasy for its rich world building, intricate lore, and diverse cast of characters that both embrace and subvert many of the genre's usual tropes.

Fans recently received some promising news, as it was announced that a new video game based on The Wheel of Time is in the works. The title is still in early development and few details beyond the fact that it has been officially unveiled have been released so far. But given The Wheel of Time's impressive history, place in the fantasy canon, and its legions of devoted fans, the upcoming project has a lot riding on it to deliver an experience worthy of its source work.

Robert Jordan passed away in 2007, with the last three main Wheel of Time books being completed by fellow fantasy novelist, Brandon Sanderson, based on Jordan's surviving notes.

The Wheel of Time's Upcoming Video Game Adaptation Will Need to Aspire to Stand Out

The Wheel of Time Was Long Overdue for Another Video Game Version

With a whopping fourteen total novels in the series published between 1990 and 2013, The Wheel of Time has a huge amount of established ground to cover. There was actually a previous Wheel of Time video game, an FPS by developer GT Interactive, released in 1999. Though it sold poorly, it was generally well-liked and reviewed at the time, and in 2022, Night Dive Studios published the title on GOG.

A live-action series premiered on Amazon Prime TV in 2021, with The Wheel of Time show having recently wrapped up its third season. It does seem like an opportune time, then, for the franchise to dip back into gaming and take advantage of both this and the latest technology and design to bring its world and characters to life for fans in the medium.

The Wheel of Time Video Game Adaptation Is Set Up for Success, So Long as it Sticks the Landing

The upcoming game will be handled by a newly formed division of The Wheel of Time's IP holder, iwot Studios (formerly Red Eagle Entertainment), under the direction of Craig Alexander. Alexander was formerly the lead at Turbine, the original studio that worked on Lord of the Rings Online, with LOTR itself clearly a work that inspired TWOT. The new title is promised to be an open-world AAA RPG, and the developer said that it is currently set to take around three years to develop. CEO Rick Selvage has also been quoted as stating that the project will encompass "everything that is covered in the books, as well as all the backstory elements."

Nearly every aspect of The Wheel of Time would translate extremely well into a game adaptation of this nature, provided it gets the fundamentals and other details right. The challenge, of course, lies in nailing down a satisfying experience that indeed honors the source, as there have been a few unfortunate missteps in such attempts, like 2023's infamous The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. As such , there are some notable titles The Wheel of Time can look at in order to ensure its forthcoming entry is up to par:

  • The Elder Scrolls
  • Final Fantasy 16
  • The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

These and a few others could provide a good blueprint for how iwot can create a high-quality The Wheel of Time game that draws from its ample material to live up to its legacy, and hopefully give fans a memorable game worthy of the brand.

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The Wheel of Time
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TV-14
Drama
Adventure
Fantasy
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Release Date
2021 - 2025-00-00
Network
Prime Video
Showrunner
Rafe Judkins
Directors
Sanaa Hamri, Ciaran Donnelly, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Thomas Napper, Maja Vrvilo, Wayne Che Yip
Writers
Amanda Kate Shuman, Dave Hill, Rohit Kumar, Justine Juel Gillmer, Celine Song, Rammy Park, The Clarksons Twins, Katherine B. McKenna
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Cast

See All
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    Rosamund Pike
    Moiraine Damodred
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    Daniel Henney
    al'Lan Mandragoran
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Franchise(s)
The Wheel of Time