Video game movies have surged in popularity in recent years. After decades of a supposed curse over the whole genre, Hollywood has started to crack the code on how to turn beloved video games into successful and well-received blockbusters. A Minecraft Movie‘s success last year was the latest example of this, with it becoming so big that a sequel has already been announced.
There are so many hit games out there that many are still awaiting their first adaptation. Some of the most anticipated video game movies, like Call of Duty and The Legend of Zelda, are finally on the brink of making it to the big screen at long last. Five Nights at Freddy’s and Sonic the Hedgehog have found recent success after their movie adaptations finally came out. Conversely, Prince of Persia, Warcraft, Need for Speed, and others have been left alone after a single film.
It’s much rarer for video games to get a second life as a movie franchise. Mario had to wait nearly 30 years to get his second shot. Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat have been rebooted in the last decade. Even a fresh Street Fighter is on the way later this year. However, another massive video game franchise is getting the big-screen reboot treatment sooner.
From the Coin-Op Era to the Cloud · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Video Games? “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.”
Arcade EraInsert coin
The ConsolesPlug & play
HandheldsGame Boy era
PC GamingSteam & mod scene
Esports & OnlineGG, well played
01
In November 1972, a small Sunnyvale start-up named Atari released the arcade game widely credited as the industry’s first commercial blockbuster. Designed by engineer Allan Alcorn as a training exercise, its prototype famously stopped working in a Sunnyvale bar because the coin box was overstuffed with quarters. Name the game.
✓ Correct! Pong, designed by Allan Alcorn at Atari (founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney). The Sunnyvale bar Andy Capp’s reportedly called Atari to complain the prototype had broken; when Alcorn arrived, the cabinet was fine — the coin box was simply jammed full. Pong went on to sell over 8,000 cabinets and effectively created the consumer video-game industry. Bushnell’s earlier Computer Space (1971) is the very first commercial coin-op video game, but it sold poorly and didn’t spark the boom.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Pong. Space Invaders is Taito’s 1978 hit. Asteroids is Atari’s own 1979 vector-graphics smash. Computer Space (1971) is technically the first commercial coin-op video game ever — designed by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell — but it flopped at retail. Pong is the 1972 game that proved the industry could actually work.
02
The North American video-game crash of 1983 wiped out 97% of the industry’s revenue almost overnight. The two scapegoat releases — a rushed E.T. tie-in famously buried in a New Mexico landfill, and an unplayable port of Pac-Man — ran on the same now-iconic console. Whose console was it?
✓ Correct! Atari, specifically the Atari 2600 (originally the VCS). Howard Scott Warshaw famously developed E.T. in five weeks to make a Christmas 1982 deadline; over 4 million unsold copies were eventually buried in the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill in 1983 — later confirmed as real archaeology by a 2014 dig. The crash gutted the American console market until Nintendo launched the NES in 1985, with Japan taking over from there.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Atari (the 2600). Magnavox’s Odyssey was the very first home console (1972) but had been long-superseded by 1983. ColecoVision and Intellivision were 2600 competitors that also got hit by the crash, but the headline disasters — E.T. and the Pac-Man port — were Atari’s, and Atari was the dominant brand whose collapse defined the era.
03
After the 1983 crash, Nintendo’s Famicom (released in Japan in 1983) was rebranded as the NES for North America in 1985. The launch was anchored by a single Shigeru Miyamoto-designed pack-in title that became the genre-defining 2D platformer and one of the best-selling games of all time. Name it.
✓ Correct! Super Mario Bros. (September 1985 in Japan as the Famicom version, October 1985 in North America bundled with the NES). Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka’s 8-bit blueprint for the genre — running, jumping, scrolling, secrets — sold over 40 million copies and was the standard pack-in NES title (sometimes packed alongside Duck Hunt on the Zapper bundle). The Legend of Zelda came in 1986; Super Mario Bros. is the title that defined the launch.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Super Mario Bros. Donkey Kong (1981) is Miyamoto’s arcade breakthrough — and Mario’s actual debut as “Jumpman.” Duck Hunt was bundled with the Zapper-pack version of the NES alongside Super Mario Bros. The Legend of Zelda came a year later (1986). The headline NES launch title is Super Mario Bros.
04
As of 2024 the best-selling single video game of all time has cleared 300 million copies sold across every platform you can imagine — far ahead of every other franchise entry on the list. The studio behind it was bought by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Name the game.
✓ Correct! Minecraft — over 300 million copies sold, with Markus “Notch” Persson’s Mojang acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in November 2014. The game launched in alpha in 2009, hit full release in November 2011, and has since shipped on every major platform from PC to Switch to phones to PlayStation. GTA V is the second-best-selling game ever (~200M+) and the most profitable entertainment product of all time. Tetris versions vary by counting method but together comfortably exceed 500M; the question specifies a single game, where Minecraft leads.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Minecraft. Tetris is technically larger across all versions combined but is fragmented across dozens of separately-counted SKUs. GTA V is the second-best-selling discrete game (~200M+) and the most profitable entertainment product ever made. Wii Sports moved 82M but mostly as a pack-in. The single best-selling game ever is Minecraft.
05
A 28-year-old Shigeru Miyamoto was given a salvage job in 1981: convert thousands of unsold Radar Scope cabinets into a profitable game. The result was an arcade smash that introduced both a barrel-throwing antagonist and a moustachioed protagonist named “Jumpman” — later renamed Mario. Name this 1981 arcade game.
✓ Correct! Donkey Kong (1981). Nintendo of America had crates of unsold Radar Scope cabinets sitting in a New Jersey warehouse; Miyamoto’s pitch — a Popeye-inspired story about a giant ape and a damsel in distress — was retrofitted into the existing hardware. The game made $280 million in its first two years, single-handedly saved Nintendo of America, and gave the world both Donkey Kong and Mario (originally just called “Jumpman”). It also drove a Universal Studios trademark lawsuit over alleged King Kong similarity, which Nintendo won.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Donkey Kong. Mario Bros. is the 1983 arcade follow-up where Mario gets his name and his plumber brother Luigi. Popeye (1982) is Miyamoto’s next game — the IP he’d originally wanted for what became Donkey Kong. Galaga (1981) is by Namco, not Nintendo. Miyamoto’s breakout game is Donkey Kong.
06
Sony’s original PlayStation launched in Japan in December 1994 and went on to dominate the fifth console generation, selling over 100 million units. The console was originally conceived as a CD-ROM add-on for another company’s console, until that partner publicly humiliated Sony at CES 1991 by suddenly switching to Philips. Which spurned company drove Sony into the console business?
✓ Correct! Nintendo. The two companies had jointly developed a SNES CD-ROM add-on (codenamed “Play Station,” with the space) for years. At CES 1991, Sony announced the partnership on day one; on day two, Nintendo’s Howard Lincoln walked on stage and revealed Nintendo had quietly switched to Philips. Sony executive Ken Kutaragi convinced his board to use the prototype to build their own standalone console. The result, three years later, was the PlayStation — which buried the SNES’s successor, the N64, in third place that generation. One of the most expensive corporate snubs in business history.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Nintendo. Sega had its own CD-ROM add-on (the Sega CD, 1991). Atari was a fading competitor. Panasonic eventually shipped the 3DO (1993), but Sony’s entry into hardware was specifically driven by the Nintendo partnership collapse at CES 1991 — one of the most consequential corporate breakups in the industry’s history.
07
Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved (November 2001) is the textbook system-seller — the FPS that proved console first-person shooters could rival the PC, sold five million copies for an unproven new console, and turned its publisher into a permanent fixture in console gaming. For which 2001-launching console was it a launch title?
✓ Correct! The original Xbox — Microsoft’s first home console, launched November 15, 2001 in North America. Microsoft acquired Bungie in June 2000 specifically to make Halo an Xbox-exclusive launch title (it had originally been pitched as a Mac/PC RTS). Halo: Combat Evolved sold over 5 million copies, became the Xbox’s system-seller, and made the franchise a permanent Microsoft pillar through Halo 2’s Xbox Live revolution and beyond.
✗ Wrong. The answer is the original Xbox. PlayStation 2 launched a year earlier (October 2000). The GameCube launched within days of the Xbox in November 2001 but never had Halo. The Dreamcast (1998) was discontinued in early 2001. Halo’s home is the Xbox — its existence as an exclusive is the entire reason Microsoft bought Bungie.
08
Steam — the dominant digital storefront for PC gaming — launched in September 2003, initially mocked as a glorified DRM patcher for Counter-Strike. It now hosts over 100,000 games and reportedly takes 50–70% of all PC game sales. Which Bellevue, Washington studio (also creator of Half-Life and Portal) launched and runs Steam?
✓ Correct! Valve, founded in 1996 by ex-Microsoft executives Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Steam launched in September 2003 mainly as a way to deliver patches for Counter-Strike, with Half-Life 2 (2004) the first commercial release tied to it. Newell’s repeatedly-voiced philosophy — that piracy is fundamentally a service problem — turned Steam into the dominant PC platform and made Valve, a privately-held company, one of the most valuable per-employee firms in technology.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Valve. Blizzard runs Battle.net (Diablo, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone). id Software is the original Doom/Quake studio, now owned by Microsoft via the Bethesda/ZeniMax acquisition. Epic Games runs the competing Epic Games Store (launched 2018) alongside Fortnite and Unreal Engine. Steam — and Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 — is Valve.
High Score Recorded · Final Tally Your Gamer Standing
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Speedrun champion — or still on the tutorial?
Sony is on the verge of delivering a new version of Resident Evil to fans. The movie comes out in exactly three months, with a September 18 release date set. Starring Austin Abrams and directed by Weapons‘ Zach Cregger, the horror video game series is about to get a much-needed makeover once again.
Sony’s Resident Evil Reboot Is Very Different From The Previous Movies
The Resident Evil franchise has been around in video game form since Capcom released the first game in 1996. The survival horror story went on to become one of the biggest video game franchises ever. So, it was hardly a surprise when it got put into development as a movie. Milla Jovovich came aboard to star in a six-film Resident Evil movie franchise from director Paul W. S. Anderson that ran from 2002 to 2016 and made $1.2 billion between them.
Those Resident Evil movies were far from faithful adaptations, largely focusing on original characters like Jovovich’s Alice and turning more into an action franchise. That’s left gamers waiting for a more proper version of this apocalyptic, T-Virus-infected world to be realized. Luckily, that is what is in store for the new reboot.
Cregger is a self-proclaimed massive fan of the Resident Evil games, so he knows exactly what type of movie fans want to see. His version will lean completely into the survival horror element rather than retaining the action-heavy focus of the original franchise.
However, the game-accurate narrative style does not mean the movie is an adaptation of any specific game. Cregger has insisted that this is an original story, one that takes place concurrently with the events of Resident Evil 2. By not tackling one of the video game’s stories directly, Resident Evil‘s reboot will turn its attention to all-new characters. The lead is Abrams’ Bryan, a medical courier who tries to survive the night as the T-virus outbreak surges.
While focusing on an original character makes the reboot similar to the previous movie franchise, the more game-accurate tone and story are refreshing for the series. Sony is really hoping that this is the Resident Evil reboot that clicks with audiences.
2026’s Resident Evil Is The Franchise’s Third Reboot This Decade
Ella Balinska in Netflix’s Resident Evil
After the conclusion of Jovovich’s movies in 2016, their popularity made it certain that Hollywood would want to revisit Raccoon City at some point. But the upcoming video game movie is far from the first time Resident Evil has gotten a do-over, not by a long shot.
Just five years after Jovovich’s final appearance as Alice, Sony rebooted the series for the first time. 2021 brought Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City as the first movie in what was planned as a new iteration of the franchise. It adapted the first two games and brought Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hooper, and more aboard to lead the adaptation.
Sony seemed to play this smartly by keeping the budget low (just $25 million), but Welcome to Raccoon City didn’t land upon release. It made just $42 million and scored a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics. The disappointing performance led Sony to scrap plans for a sequel and start considering alternate ways to bring the franchise back, which led them to Cregger.
But his movie will be the third Resident Evil reboot this decade, as Netflix also did its own version of the video game. The streamer started developing a TV show adaptation in 2019, with the eight-episode first season coming out in 2022. Netflix’s Resident Evil series starred Ella Balinska, Lance Reddick, Adeline Rudolph, Paola Núñez, and others.
This version, which is loosely inspired by the games, also did not land with audiences. It fell out of Netflix’s Top 10 charts after three weeks and logged a 27% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The streamer swiftly opted not to renew the show for a second season, leaving Resident Evil fans with another unfinished live-action story.
Resident Evil’s Latest Reboot Gives The Franchise A Bright Future
Resident Evil movie still.
While we still have three months to go until Cregger’s Resident Evil arrives, his reboot inspires confidence about the video game property’s movie future. He is fresh off delivering a smash hit with Weapons, and his talent increases the likelihood that his interpretation of the series will be well-received by critics and fans once it does arrive.
That will give Resident Evil a good shot at finding success at the box office. The original movies had no trouble attracting audiences, especially overseas, so it’s not like this is a fully tarnished brand that viewers have always rejected. All Cregger and Sony need to do is convince audiences that this new reboot is one that won’t disappoint, and they should turn out in droves.
The Resident Evil reboot does boast a franchise-high budget ($80 million), so Sony is clearly counting on the horror video game series landing in a big way. As long as it does, the studio will be quick to greenlight additional installments. It wouldn’t even be that surprising if a sequel was announced before September if Sony and Cregger are especially pleased with the result.
In any case, this looks to be the Resident Evil reboot that has the best chance at truly revitalizing the video game franchise.
