PlayStation Productions to adapt games for film and TV

Sony Interactive Entertainment has created a new production studio to adapt its original game properties for film and television.

The new unit, PlayStation Productions, is headed up by Sony’s veteran marketeer Asad Qizilbash and overseen by SIE chairman of worldwide studios Shawn Layden.

While it’s based out of the Sony Pictures lot in California and is set to receive distribution help from its sister company, the business will handle production of all adaptations in-house.

“Instead of licensing our IP out to studios, we felt the better approach was for us to develop and produce for ourselves,” Qizilbash told The Hollywood Reporter. “One, because we’re more familiar, but also because we know what the PlayStation community loves.”

Sony has over 100 original properties it can tap into, covering “25 years of great games, franchises and stories”, Layden said.

“We looked at what Marvel has done in taking the world of comic books and making it into the biggest thing in the film world,” he added. “It would be a lofty goal to say we’re following in their footsteps, but certainly we’re taking inspiration from that.”

With players having to wait years for sequels to beloved games, Layden said PlayStation Production can provide “more touch points” with its franchises, although he claimed the unit won’t be pressured into releasing adaptations simply to fill gaps in PlayStation’s content schedule.

“We don’t have to rush to market,” he said. “We don’t have a list of ‘X number of titles must be done in this year.’ None of that. The company has been very accommodating to our ambition around this, to grow this in a measured, thoughtful way.”

Layden added: “To be the first gaming entity to do something lasting and meaningful in a completely different medium is something I’d like to see us achieve here at PlayStation Productions.”