Xbox boss Phil Spencer has praised HBO’s The Final of Us Collection, saying he thinks a profitable online game adaptation is a good second for the trade.
In a brand new interview with IGN, Spencer mentioned the present is “unbelievable” and he thinks the workforce behind The Final of Us have carried out an important job transferring the story from the unique PlayStation online game to a tv drama, calling out Naughty Canine co-president Neil Druckmann particularly.
“The truth that Neil himself has performed a job, clearly within the creation of the sport and the franchise, however see him making use of his artistic skills within the TV house, if that is even what we name it anymore, video house, tv house, I feel is admittedly nice,” Spencer mentioned.
“The truth that you are taking one of many biggest creators from our trade and you may have success in creating in one other medium, I simply suppose it exhibits that within the video games trade, you have got some wonderful storytellers, wonderful creators throughout all third celebration, first celebration,” he continued. “I feel it is only a nice second to see the success that they are having with the franchise.”
The Final of Us premiered earlier in January and its first episode pulled in a hefty 4.7 million viewers, making it HBO’s second greatest debut of the final decade behind solely Home of the Dragon. It is even proved so common that, after simply two episodes, star Bella Ramsey thinks a second season is already probably.
Evaluating its success to Xbox’s latest online game adaptation within the Paramount Plus Halo collection, Spencer mentioned The Final of Us has set a brand new bar.
“I would like one of the best for all the pieces that we work on, Halo tv collection included. I feel there’s some variations there, however I do not suppose that the purpose of the query of, ‘Hey, Final of Us is on the market, setting an extremely excessive bar. Ought to all of us aspire to achieve that very same bar with the work that we do in tv?’ Completely,” Spencer mentioned.
“I might say the identical factor in video video games. Each time I play an important recreation from anyone, it conjures up us to do one of the best work that we are able to, to hope that subsequent time we present up, we’re exhibiting up with our greatest artistic, our greatest concepts, and discovering individuals who both love watching, within the case of the Halo tv present, or taking part in, within the case of issues like Hello-Fi Rush and the video games which can be popping out this 12 months.”
In our 9/10 evaluation of the entire first season, IGN mentioned: “HBO’s The Final of Us is a surprising adaptation that ought to thrill newcomers and enrich these already acquainted with Joel and Ellie’s journey alike.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and performing UK information editor. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.