2025 Was A Monster Year For Stephen King Movie And Tv Adaptations…...

2025 was a huge year for Stephen King adaptations. In movie theaters this year we had The Monkey, The Long Walk, and The Running Man, and on TV there was IT: Welcome to Derry and The Institute. That makes it the biggest year for King adaptations since 2017, which gave us The Dark Tower, It (the movie), 1922, Gerald's Game, and TV series based on both Mr. Mercedes and The Mist.

We all know the last few years have also seen a rise in great co-op horror games like Lethal Company, REPO, Content Warning, and Sons of the Forest—gamers seem to enjoy nothing more these days than getting scared together.

So, like… where are all the Stephen King games at? Huh? People love Stephen King. People love scary games. There's certainly no shortage of material to work with, to the tune of 60+ books, 200+ novellas and short stories. Can we get going on this already?

I was actually surprised to learn that despite King having been cranking out horror fiction since 1974, there have been only a tiny handful of games officially based on his works. There was a text adventure for The Mist in 1985, a side-scrolling beat 'em for The Running Man in 1989, and another adventure based on The Dark Half in '92. The Lawnmower Man, which somehow became a movie in 1992 also somehow became a game in 1993, and a collection of casual games called Stephen King's F13 appeared for Windows in 2000.

But that's it. Clive Barker has more games than King, and he's nowhere near as prolific. Doesn't seem right.

I don't know if there's a specific reason for so few King adaptations—I did request an interview through King's agent, though I haven't heard back yet and don't especially expect to—but with so much crossover between movies and games these days, it seems natural that there would be more crossover from books to games, too. I'm not saying I want to see tons of licensed videogame dreck being churned out, but surely the master of horror is deserving of a few great videogame adaptations to go along with all those movies.

As proof for the potential for Stephen King games, here's some elevator pitches I came up with. If someone can get this list to Steve, I'd be happy to discuss these ideas (and my modest six figure consulting fee) with him.

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The Shining: A hotel management gameManage the Overlook Hotel year-round: hire staff, manage supplies and budgets, decorate, make visitors happy, deal with occas

Source: PC Gamer