Amazon has laid claim to the God Of War series as its next video game to TV show title, and with it—alongside the arrival of HBO’s new The Last of Us show coming this year—two more streaming giants have well and truly entered the video game-to-television arms race that Netflix has already won a major head start in.
Kratos will be the next famous gaming character, alongside Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us this year, to make their way to the medium.
Amazon will be at the helm of the video-game-to-TV show transition, with the whole GoW fanbase holding their breath to see who’s cast as the iconic god killer.
While this is an ambitious title to nab, Amazon is falling far behind in the gaming arms race. With HBO recently acquiring and developing The Last of Us series both platforms pale compared to Netflix. Netflix almost has dominion over the gaming-to-TV scene, with shows like Arcane (from League of Legends), The Witcher, Castlevania, and The Cuphead Show, the streaming titan will need a god killer to bring it to its knees.
The sheer amount isn’t even the only issue. League-inspired Arcane is among the top 25 TV shows of all time according to IMDB, with The Witcher gathering a cult following and spawning multiple seasons.
Castlevania spanned four seasons, with episodes almost reaching a ten out of ten rating towards the latter parts of the animated show’s run.
Of course, some titles don’t break records. Resident Evil is a part of the Netflix catalog and failed to entertain most audiences. The ratings for the show were absolutely brutal, but it still shows Netflix’s dominance over the game-to-movie genre.
HBO has planted its flag with The Last of Us TV series, which details the same events as the two-game franchise.
The streaming giant has a strong success rate with adaption. Despite the arguably poor last season, Game of Thrones cultivated one of the biggest fanbases in pop culture ever, even spawning book-to-TV adaptations from the same universe like House of the Dragon and the rumored Kit Harrington-led Jon Snow sequel series.
With such a strong track record, TLOU looks like it has the potential to ruffle Netflix’s feathers.
Whether this makes a dent in Netflix’s armor will be dependent on whether notoriously hard-to-please gaming fans can rally behind the TLOU banner.
Only time will tell to see if HBO and Amazon topple Netflix. If The Last of Us or God of War comes out of the gate with blistering reviews, Netflix could start sweating.
