by Bots

While the eighth season of Game Of Thrones will be the series’ last, the franchise has been around way before the show even existed and will be around long after. Of course at first, there were books. The first book in the ‘A Song Of Ice and Fire‘ series, called ‘A Game Of Thrones‘, was released way back in 1996 and since then we have had countless spin-off novellas, graphic novels, board games, card games, recipe books and even a couple of bizarre mixtape albums, not to mention that the sixth and seventh books don’t even have release dates yet. And then there’s the forthcoming (currently untitled) prequel series starring Naomi Watts, which means that while the current show might be coming to an end, the franchise isn’t going anywhere soon.

And of course, another world that Game Of Thrones has thrown it’s hat into is that of video games. There have been seven to date (not counting the George R.R. Martin approved text-based role-playing game featured on westeros.net), so let’s have a look at each and every entry so far…

A Game Of Thrones: Genesis (2011 – Windows)

Whilst coinciding with the release of the first season of Game Of Thrones, the first video game, by Cyanide, is actually more closely connected to the books rather than the show, and takes place over a 1,000 year period beginning with the warrior-queen Nymeria’s arrival in Westeros right up until the wildling assault on The Wall as seen in the show’s fourth Season.

The strategy game, in which the player’s main goal is to (shock) claim the Iron Throne was met with mixed reviews on release, with IGN claiming “A Game Of Thrones: Genesis’s sluggish campaign… suffers from poor pacing, and the end game almost always devolves into ham-fisted warfare punctuated by dull combat“

Game Of Thrones (2012 – Xbox 360 / PS3 / Windows)

With the first season of Game Of Thrones proving to be a huge hit, Cyanide quickly got to work on a console game that, while still closer to the books than the show, managed to be a fairly authentic companion to the series. The graphics weren’t too shabby (for a TV tie-in game, at least), and they managed to get the likenesses and voices of James Cosmo, reprising his role as Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, and Conleth Hill, who returned as fan favourite Lord Varys. Also adding to the experience was the inclusion of Ramin Djwadi’s now iconic music score from the series.

However, the game once again was greeted with a mixed reaction. The story was mostly praised but many, including myself, felt the game was completely let down by the mediocre gameplay and frankly terrible combat system, which eventually forced me to stop playing altogether after only a few hours.

Game Of Thrones: Ascent (2013 – iOS / Android / Facebook)

With the rise of mobile gaming, we saw a huge increase in ‘freemium’ strategy and city-building games such as Simpsons: Tapped Out and mobile versions of Sin City and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Game Of Thrones was quick to jump on the bandwagon. It didn’t really add anything new to the genre but it was a decent enough placeholder between seasons, with regular story updates up until it was shut down in October 2018. This is, in fact, the only mobile ‘freemium’ game that I have ever purchased in-game credits so make of that what you will.

Game Of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series (2014 – Xbox 360 / PS3 / Xbox One / PS4 / Mobile devices)

Following Telltale Game’s breakout hit, ‘The Walking Dead‘, the studio suddenly became a big player in the video game industry with major film, TV and video game franchises wanting to get in on the action. The likes of Back To The Future, Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman and Minecraft ended up getting the Telltale treatment, but before those came an incredible Game Of Thrones story, a spin-off from the show featuring members of House Forrester dealing with the aftermath of the infamous Red Wedding.

As with The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Tales From The Borderlands before it; Game Of Thrones also received mostly positive reviews. Unfortunately, we will never be able to find out what happens next as a proposed second season was cancelled after Telltale Games announced news of their closure in September 2018.

Game Of Thrones: Conquest (2017 – iOS / Android)

The second city-building mobile game based on Game Of Thrones (and trust me, it will not be the last) once again doesn’t add anything new to the genre, but fans of these kinds of games will find plenty here to keep them logging back in every morning.

Reigns: Game Of Thrones (2018 – Nintendo Switch / iOS / Android)

This is perhaps the strangest one on the list. This game is the third entry in the ‘Reigns‘ series, following the first game of the same name and its sequel; ‘Reigns: Her Majesty‘. The gameplay is almost Tinder-like in its execution, where players swipe left or right depending on what decisions they choose to progress the story. Despite its simplistic nature, the game (and the series as a whole) has garnered favourable reviews and was nominated for numerous awards.

Game Of Thrones: Winter Is Coming (2019 – Browser)

Earlier this year, Yonzu Interactive released a free real-time strategy browser game. It differs over its freemium counterparts by having vastly superior graphics and more emphasis on battle, whilst also featuring many popular characters from the show.

So there you have it, that’s every Game Of Thrones video game released so far. An MMORPG titled ‘Game Of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms’ was announced and has as of yet not been officially cancelled, but seeing as we haven’t heard anything about that since 2012, I think we can assume that this one probably won’t see the light of day.

What’s your favourite game based on Game Of Thrones? Let us know in the comments.