Game of Thrones is everywhere. It's inescapable. I don't even watch it, and yet, I feel like the new episode has been spoiled for me. But that wasn't the case back in 2005, when George R. R. Martin's novels were still (relatively) obscure and the TV series hadn't even been considered.
So you can understand why Obsidian might think twice about making a game adaptation. The studio, famous for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Pillars of Eternity (among many others), declined to take on the project when EA Partners approached them in 2005, according to an interview with co-founder Feargus Urquhart over on Eurogamer.
The reason? Apparently the studio considered Game of Thrones better fitted to an RTS game, rather than the open world RPGs they were aiming to specialise in at the time.
"Back then [RTS games] were more relevant and I said, 'I just don't know how we could make... It just feels more like an RTS game.'," Urquhart said. "You have different factions and you put more political intrigue in there."
And elsewhere: ""Other than what weird stuff is going on beyond The Wall, and the dragons, and some hint [of fantasy/magic], there are no magic users, there are no clerics, no thieves. Basically there's dudes with swords and armour and a little bit of mysticism, but within the main land [the Seven Kingdoms] there's no goblins, no kobolds..."
The full story is worth a look if you're interested in the (very reasonable) rationale behind turning the project down. It's good timing too, since everyone's going crazy about the (very unlikely) possibility of a Bethesda Game of Thrones RPG.
