Publisher Devolver Digital on Tuesday announced the creation of a new publishing label called Big Fan Games that’ll focus on allowing indie studios to make licensed games, and it already has deals in place with Disney, Dark Horse Comics, Rebellion, Lionsgate, HBO, and more.
Devolver has worked on video game adaptations of other media properties before, such as Reigns: Game of Thrones, John Wick Hex, and Hellboy Web of Wyrd. Big Fan Games will continue this line of work, but with the caveat that the indie studios will call the shots.
“Big Fan’s DNA is in games like John Wick Hex and Reigns: Game of Thrones – unique takes on familiar franchises led by devs we love. Those games rule,” Devolver wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “So lets make more.”
Big Fan Games hasn’t announced a lineup just yet, but with those partners already in place, players can expect titles based on some huge properties.
Hi, we're Big Fan. A new label from Devolver Digital.
We're publishing video game adaptations of our favorite movies, shows, comics, and more. And we're doing it all with some of the coolest indie devs in the business.https://t.co/rCHITOZipe pic.twitter.com/E3OzbKiQl0
— Big Fan Games (@BigFanPresents) October 1, 2024
The video game industry has a long history with licensed games, and it hasn’t always been positive. For every Goldeneye or Telltale’s The Walking Dead, there’s an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for Atari, Skull Island: Rise of Kong from just last year, or The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. While many think of licensed games as those half-baked platformers from the 1990s, there have been others that have managed to become great games in their own right.
In many ways, we’re also in a new age of licensed games thanks in part to the growing success of the Lego brand in Fortnite and other upcoming titles like Lego Horizon Adventures. Plus, Fortnite in general has popularized the pop culture crossover, bringing licensed properties to existing games like PUBG: Battlegrounds or the Call of Duty franchise.
“We believe (and have seen firsthand) that great games that propel existing franchises can offer a connection with a fan that only an interactive experience can offer,” a Big Fan spokesperson wrote in a press release. “Independent games created in these universes can explore them in new and unexpected ways, and it’s our goal to raise the bar of what fans can expect.”
In response to a question about what kinds of genres they’ll explore, the Big Fan X account noted that genre doesn’t matter. “Making genuinely good video game adaptations that are just as good as their source material is the only goal,” it wrote.
Devolver has published a number of acclaimed and unique indie titles this year, including The Plucky Squire, Pepper Grinder, The Crush House, and many others.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.