Game of Thrones: Kingsroad video game will feature "bloody and sexual scenes"

Video games based on Game of Thrones have been hit or miss over the years. The series of story-based adventure games from Telltale was pretty popular, but generally we've gotten mobile games like Game of Thrones: Conquest, which have failed to make much of an impact.

South Korean developer Netmarble is trying again with Game of Thrones: Kingsroad. This game looks more like an active-adventure title. In the trailer, which you can watch above, you fight foes beyond the Wall as Jon Snow. And developer Moon Jun-ki makes it sounds like there's much more we haven't seen yet.

“We prioritized what the fans would want to see. We think the fans want to explore the open world with the characters they know,” Moon said at the G-Star 2024 gaming convention, per Korea JoongAng Daily. According to Moon, the game includes many "bloody and sexual scenes" in keeping with the nature of the original show. “The story of the main characters might be different from the original story, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t feel like a ‘Game of Thrones’ story,” said executive producer Jang Hyun-il. “Game of Thrones has its violent and sexual nature to it, and we are trying to incorporate that nature in the main scenario.”

Of course, there's more to Game of Thrones than sex and violence, but that is definitely a part of the experience. My biggest question is whether, as a mobile game, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad can overcome the smallness that seems to keep such games from penetrating the wider culture. You can play it on a computer as well, and the developers emphasized that it supports “full manual controls” as opposed to the automatic controls these types of games sometime employ. But whether that's enough to really excite people remains to be seen.

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad will come out in the West first, since "Asian gamers tend to consume content faster"

Jang says that Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is "70 percent complete," but there are "still wonky aspects" to work out. There is no firm release date as of now, although Moon Jun-ki did say that they plan to launch the game in western countries first, since "Asian gamers tend to consume content faster."

"We plan to launch in the West first, make any changes to the game, and release in the [Asian] region soon after."

I cannot vouch for the truth or veracity of that statement. Korea JoongAng Daily posits that this release strategy "should give comparatively slower Western players a decent head start, allowing them to finish the title before too many competitors across the globe have plowed through it and spoiled the material." Should I be offended that Western gamers like me are considered slow when it comes to playing and competing games? I must sit with this.

In any case, I do think that Game of Thrones: Kingsroad looks like a more robust gaming experience than a lot of Game of Thrones games that have come out before, but the proof will be in the pudding whenever it comes out.

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