It was announced on May 17, 2017, that Netflix is going to produce a Witcher television series. For those that do not know, Witcher is a medieval fantasy, action role-playing game series based on the novel series of the same name. The Witcher video games follow the story of Geralt, who is one of the few remaining Witchers, which are traveling monster hunters for hire who have supernatural power. In these game, the choices the gamer make influences the ending of the game. This leads to the question that needs to be asked is "Will the Witcher television series be a success or a failure?"

When it comes to converting video games to movies it usually results in at best a lackluster and utterly disappointing at worst. As a gamer, I shutter when I hear they are making a movie of some of my favorite video games. Video game movies are universally panned by many critics and most audiences hate these movies because they hardly if ever stick to the source material. Some video games converted into movies include Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Lara Croft, Warcraft, and Assassin's Creed. To understand how horrible these movies tend to be the highest ranking video game movie scored a 44. If you like to learn more about why video game movies are horrible, I recommend checking out the video done by The Game Theorist Channel on Youtube, on this topic.

One of the reasons that these movies often are horrible is because it takes out the control from the players. In the video game, the players control the actions of the character and explore the world at their own pace. For Witcher, since its game-play relays highly on the choices of gamer, the television show would take out the aspect that makes Witcher an intriguing game since all the gamer's choices are taken into consideration. Second, when it comes to casting actors for these iconic characters it could make or break the series. The video games sets up Geralt's character's image and backstory and many fans would be highly upset if they changed it. Finally, the reason why Witcher television show may fail may be how the show is advertising it. Right now the only people who are excited and worried about the Witcher television series are gamers who either played the game or heard of it. Netflix has to be careful when it comes to advertising the series and not isolate the general demographic or the gamer demographic.

On the other side of the spectrum where television shows based on video games do relatively well. Some just examples include Persona 4, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong, and most well known Pokemon. The one thing all these shows have in common is that all of these shows are animated series. These shows were able to hit both their targeted audiences of kids but also appeal to the gamers as well. This is a good sign for the Witcher television series.

In fact, there are some reasons why Witcher series would be the a big hit. The first reason is due to the fact that Netflix is heading the project. Netflix has a good history of great television shows from Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. Netflix takes the time and effort to make sure each of their shows are at the highest quality both in story and character development. The next reason why the Witcher series may be a smash hit is because it will be live action instead of animation. Live action television appeals to a larger audience and it can capture the violent scenes to their fullest extent. Finally, the Witcher is similar to another popular HBO show known as Game of Thrones. The Witcher is similar to Game of Thrones in many ways from the bloody violence to an intriguing story as well it has plenty of sex scenes.

Will Witcher be the next Game of Thrones or will it fall flat. With it being in the production phase right now only time will tell. Let us know what you think.