The popular Netflix show Narcos is set to get a video game adaptation as early as 2019. For those that watch and love the show this might be a treat since Curve Digital has announced that its sister company Kuju is going to be adapting the game to both PC and consoles. While it’s not really certain just what kind of a game it will be the best guess is something like a crime-solving game or an RPG of some sort. Chances are since the show is a blend of action and drama it will be an RPG but with a much different pace than many of them that people have grown used to.
It’s not too much of a surprise that Narcos would be singled out to become a video game. What’s going to be a big surprise though is if people flock to it and the sales go through the roof. This is an unfortunate side effect of a show taking off like this sometimes, the producers think that they might be able to market the show in another way that could reach their viewers and allow them to become a part of the experience. That’s all well and good and in some cases it has been highly lucrative, but with Narcos this could be a hit or a miss as it doesn’t feel like it will be something guaranteed to be a bestseller. It could surprise people and go flying off the shelves since the content and the story are great, but the transition from the small screen to the console or PC is a much different one than from the big screen to the small screen, or from a book to either one of them. In other words there’s really no telling how the game is going to do until the first numbers come in and possibly prove me wrong.
The history of this kind of thing is unfortunately going against Narcos however since despite market research and whatever other studies go into making video games from TV shows and movies, the reaction of the desired audience is always going to fluctuate from one extreme to another. That means that what someone thinks is going to be a great idea since the people love the show could end up being a disaster since people love the show but don’t want to play the game. After all, playing the game might let them into the experience, but it means that they’ve got to do the work and advance the game in the right way to keep the story going. That’s a lot of work if you really think about it, while just turning on the show allows them to sit back and watch without having to stretch their mental muscles a single bit.
Again I could be wrong and come 2019 if that’s the case then I will gladly admit it since RPG games are a lot of fun and crime-solving games are a kick. But until then let’s not hold our breath.
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