Acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has revealed that he has started to see interest in video game adaptations of his Mistborn series of books. In the latest entry of his yearly State of the Sanderson series of blog posts where he usually writes about the previous years and plans moving forward, Sanderson said that he was in discussions with AAA developers for a Mistborn adaptation.
While he had expressed interest in a video game adaptation of Mistborn in the past—one such project was seemingly in the works back in 2012 at Little Orbit before eventually being cancelled—Sanderson admitted that the rights to a game adaptation were tied up with the book series’ film rights for around six-to-seven years.
“I’ve started to get some real interest on the video game front, and I feel I’m finally getting established enough that we can make a Mistborn game happen,” wrote Sanderson. “To that end, I’ve started talking to some AAA developers. This is at Step One only, but it’s an encouraging one. These rights were tied up with the film rights for the last… oh, six~seven years, so I didn’t get to test the market on them until recently.“
“I’m trying to do things differently this time in an effort to retain control of my video game rights. I already have interest from some major players in the Video Game industry (who I like a lot).”
In mentioning “Step One”, Sanderson refers to what he calls his ten steps “to getting a film/TV property made”. These ten steps are categorised under three distinct phases, with Step One falling under Phase One: Initial Option. The step itself revolves around pitching. While these steps are largely about TV and film adaptations, the same steps could also largely be applied to potential video game adaptations.
Mistborn—a common method of referring to the first trilogy in the larger Mistborn franchise—revolves around a young girl Vin, who finds herself involved in a massive planned heist by a group of thieves against the insidious figure known only as the Lord Ruler. The series is anchored by its in-depth setting and detailed magic system that revolves around the use of various kinds of metals to get different benefits. Ingesting tin, for example, gives a massive boost to all sensory organs, while ingesting iron allows the user to pull metallic objects closer to them. A person capable of making use of all metals in this way is referred to in-universe as the titular Mistborn, while those capable of only using one such metal is referred to as a Misting.
Mistborn, along with Sanderson’s other major series Stormlight Archive, has been regarded by readers as being the foundation for potentially fun games owing to the intricate magic system that allows for potentially interesting combat systems for games.
Sanderson has previously worked with Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds on turn-based tactical strategy game Moonbreaker, which was released back in 2022 as an Early Access title, with its 1.0 release happening in 2024. The year also saw Sanderson get interest from Bandai Namco after the author uploaded a video of him unboxing an Elden Ring parcel he got from the publisher.
