Gearbox Software owned the Blade Runner videogame license for a long while, but ended up not making a game based on the film due to the expense of the game; it would have bankrupted the developer.
According to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford:
“Blade Runner was on (the list). We had it too and we were like, ‘No, we can’t.’ That game would’ve cost like $40m to make and sold about 600,000 units – and that would have been the end of us.
“There’s no rational business model that would have allowed that to make sense. If we’d made it with a business model that did work, it would not have been the Blade Runner game we all would have wanted.”
The game would have even had input from Ridley Scott himself, had the project commenced.
The only game based on the Blade Runner license was a 1997 graphic adventure game of the same name (as seen in the video below), which had a high replay value due to the game randomizing elements (some of the characters would be human in one game, or a replicant in the other, including the protagonist Ray McCoy.) Sean Young, Brion James, James Hong, Joe Turkel, and William Sanderson reprised their roles in the game as well.
Jonah Falcon is a blogger for TMRzoo and GameStooge.com and covers all gaming consoles and platforms including Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP and computer games designed for Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Jonah provides his readers with reviews, previews, release dates and up to date gaming industry news, trailers and rumors.
