Following the success of their collaboration with George R.R. Martin on Elden Ring, Bandai Namco are now reportedly interested in collaborating with Mistborn and Wheel of Time author Brandon Sanderson on a Souls-like title.
During a recent livestream, Sanderson was surprised with a box of promotional Elden Ring material (11:32) from the game’s publisher, Bandai Namco.
Alongside a map, a wax-sealed lore letter, a wood-cut, a cloak, and a sword, the box also contained a note from Bandai Namco expressing interest in working with the author.
Briefly reading the note to himself, Sanderson then revealed, “They are interested in perhaps doing something together, which is what that says.”
“I actually have a pitch for them, in the back of my head,” he admitted. “So I may have to send them my pitch, and see what they think…I always have a pitch for everything, that’s the thing.”
Posing the question, “Like if I were ever gonna do a Souls-borne game, what would I do…?”, Sanderson then recalled that this development with Bandai Namco was similar to the situation surrounding his previous collaboration with Wizards of the Coast on the Magic: The Gathering novel, Children of the Nameless
“You guys know what happened, I thought, ‘I wonder what I would do if I ever wrote a Magic: The Gathering story?’ So I spent four years developing Magic: The Gathering stories,” he explained. “So that when Magic contacted me and said ‘Hey do you wanna write a story,’ I said ‘yes I already have one, and I will write it. And I did.”
He continued, “The same way, I’ve been thinking of ‘What would I do Souls-Borne sort of game?’
“Obviously I don’t get to decide that, right? But [I] just had that in the back of my head,” Sanderson teased. “So maybe you guys will hear something from me. I have some ideas. I always have ideas.”
Though Martin was approached as the primary world builder for Elden Ring, he and director Hidetaka Miyazaki are joined credited with creating the Lands Between.
Given the success of Elden Ring, it would not be unlikely for Bandai Namco and FromSoftware to continue working with proven fantasy authors to develop new works.
Though authors have crossed over into video games before, such as Neon Lotus author Marc Laidlaw with the Half-Life series or Tom Clancy with the first few games in his eponymous series, it’s not too radical to consider that Elden Ring may signal the start of a new era of more dedicated and focused collaboration between book authors and video game developers.
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Aside from completing the final three Wheel of Time books after the death of original series author Robert Jordan, Sanderson is best known for his Mistborn series and the other various novels set within his Cosmere universe.
In March, Sanderson unveiled that he had written five books during the COVID-19 pandemic – four adult novels and one shorter novel for children – and announced that they would be independently released via a Kickstarter campaign.
Raising $20 million in just three days, Sanderon’s campaign would go on to become the most successful Kickstarter campaign of all time, ultimately raising $41.7 million by the time it closed.
Yet, even before the campaign concluded, other authors began to accuse Sanderson of “white privilege” – thankfully to no avail.
Does Sanderson’s prior works give you confidence he could produce an interesting game world? What other authors would you like to see take on video games? Let us know on social media and in the comments below.