Although the Predator franchise has been around for almost four decades, it hasn’t had a lot of video game adaptations that lived up to the original movie. Dan Trachtenberg–the director of Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and the upcoming Predator: Badlands–wants to see that change. And he believes Predator deserves a game on par with two AAA franchises.
“I am desperate for there to be a third-person action-adventure, Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, that kind of open-world thing,” Trachtenberg told IGN. “Concrete Jungle was something that I missed unfortunately. And that was a long time ago. And there’s just so much fun to be had game wise, I think, with Predator. I hope it could happen.”
Predator: Concrete Jungle was released in 2005, and it put players in control of a Predator who had to reclaim his lost technology from the humans who stole it. While Trachtenberg didn’t play that game, he did reveal that he once designed a Predator video game level as part of a contest for the defunct gaming magazine GamePro.
“I used to love GamePro and there was a contest … to design a level and then you would make it in the magazine,” recalled Trachtenberg. “And I submitted, I designed a Predator video game level that I’m sure I was just copying Contra. And I did not make it into the magazine.”
Earlier this year, Trachtenberg noted that Shadow of the Colossus heavily inspired Badlands. In a separate interview, he also cited Half-Life 2, Prince of Persia, and Uncharted as games that helped shape his vision for the story.
Predator: Badlands will hit theaters on November 7. The most recent game in the franchise, Predator: Hunting Grounds, was ported to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S last year.
