Oh great, just what the world needed—another open-world RPG based on a sprawling, complex, impossible-to-translate fantasy series that thinks it's going to “honor the source material.” Get your al’Lan Mandragoran cosplays ready, because apparently The Wheel of Time is about to spin its way into the land of fetch quests, pointless side missions, and NPCs who sound like Siri after a wine tasting.
That’s right, folks. According to an exclusive report from Variety (which we’re assuming means “exclusive” in the sense that only about 400 other outlets will parrot it in the next 10 minutes), a Wheel of Time video game is officially in the works. And not just any video game—oh no. A AAA open-world RPG courtesy of the newly formed iwot Games. You know it’s serious when a company that used to be called Red Eagle Entertainment rebrands with a name that sounds like a weird pharmaceutical brand and decides they’re now a “games division.”
Let’s break this down. Deep breath. Sip your tea, maybe spike it. This is going to be a ride.
You Get a Franchise! And You Get a Franchise!
The Wheel of Time IP, like any good fantasy property in 2025, isn’t content with just being 14 mammoth books long, a Prime Video show halfway through puberty, and some ill-advised comic attempts. No, now it needs a game. Not just any game—a full-blown, universe-spanning RPG that, in the words of iwot Studios CEO Rick Selvage, will include “everything that is covered in the books, as well as all the backstory elements of it.”
Everything. ALL OF IT.
Just a reminder: The Wheel of Time contains over 2,750 named characters. That’s not a fantasy world—that’s a census.
But hey, who cares about feasibility when you’ve got synergy to chase?
Meet the New Game Gods: Warner Bros. Castoffs and Canadian Weather
Helming this Sisyphean effort is Craig Alexander, a Warner Bros. Games veteran, which is code for “this guy knows how to microtransaction your nostalgia into bankruptcy.” Alexander, for context, worked on Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, two games that existed, sure, and now are basically weekend LAN party trivia for neckbeards over 35.
He’s also had senior roles at Activision, EA, and Sierra On-Line, so naturally we can expect a beautifully monetized loot system, a half-finished launch, and a $60 pre-order bonus that gets you a different color cloak for Moiraine.
Also, the studio is headquartered in Montreal, because where else would you house your world-building dreams if not in the land of poutine, snow, and government video game tax credits?
Open World? More Like Open Wallet
Let’s talk “open-world RPG.” Those four words now mean: “You will run across 600 hours of map fog, stab 14 varieties of wolves, and pick herbs for an old man who just happens to be a legendary Aes Sedai in disguise.”
And remember—this isn’t just an adaptation of the main narrative. No no. It’s the entire world. All the Ages. All the timelines. All the overly described braid-tugging.
According to Selvage, we’re going to get content from the Age of Legends movie they’re also making, so expect lots of synergy, reused assets, and some poor intern tasked with making Rand al’Thor’s eyebrows match across three media formats.
What’s that? You were hoping for depth of story and thoughtful world-building? Sorry, we blew the budget rendering an accurate model of the Blight in Unreal Engine 6 and now your character can’t blink.
Job Opportunity! Apply Now, Burn Out by 2027!
Craig Alexander is “building out” the leadership team for iwot Games as we speak. In other words, they don’t actually have a dev team yet—but they sure have a press release!
Yes, if you’re passionate about turning Robert Jordan’s 4 million words into combat mechanics and morality trees, now’s your time. Just email opportunities@iwotgames.com. Bonus points if you’ve already coded a dynamic braid-tugging system.
Let’s not forget, building a AAA game usually takes a team of 200-500 people working nonstop for three to five years. And that’s without trying to make it make sense to people who still think Rand al’Thor is just a typo in a Star Wars fanfic.
So sure, three years sounds… ambitious. But what’s three years in the Pattern of Ages?
The “Transmedia Strategy” You Asked For (You Didn’t)
Everything now must be “transmedia.” That’s corporate-speak for “we want to own your time, money, and emotional bandwidth across multiple platforms.” Amazon has the TV show. There’s a Wheel of Time movie in the works. An animated feature in Quebec. Now the game.
Soon we’ll have a theme park. A dating simulator. A line of tampons called “The Red Ajah.”
And don’t you dare complain about lore bloat. Remember what Selvage said: this game is going to include “a lot of continuity in regards to how we approach our transmedia strategy.” Which roughly translates to: “If the character dies in the show, expect a 19-hour side quest about their childhood trauma in the game. Also, please buy the Funko Pop.”
But Will It Actually Be Fun?
Look, we get it. Fantasy fans are used to disappointment. You were burned by Cyberpunk 2077. You tried to care about Forspoken. You still pretend Dragon Age: Inquisition was “pretty good actually.”
But let’s be honest with ourselves. This game is being built by a startup studio with no shipped titles, based on a notoriously dense and internal monologue-heavy book series, under the creative oversight of a company that once gave us The Wheel of Time pilot episode that aired literally at 1 AM to preserve the rights.
So… are our expectations low enough yet?
Because unless this thing launches with the sheer miracle of Baldur’s Gate 3 polish, the humor of The Witcher, the size of Skyrim, and the emotional resonance of Elden Ring (good luck), we are probably in for a buggy mess that has Rand’s sword floating in mid-air and Moiraine clipping through walls while trying to give a monologue about destiny.
What We Might Get Right
Okay, fine. Let’s entertain hope for a second. Just a second. Maybe this game will give us:
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A chance to explore Tar Valon and actually climb the White Tower.
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Seanchan invasions that don’t just happen off-screen.
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Aiel war parties in full combat glory.
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Choices that actually matter—do you support Mat’s military gamble or trolloc-proof your farmstead with Perrin?
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A skill tree based on ta’veren luck that literally lets you crit-fail your way into success.
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And maybe—just maybe—a finale that doesn't feel like Jordan wrote half of it and left the rest in a dusty trunk for Brandon Sanderson to panic-finish.
But again, this is the best-case scenario. We’re far more likely to get:
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Moraine: “You must find the Eye of the World!”
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Player: “Cool. First I have to escort this merchant through 7 zones of bandits.”
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Moraine: sighs in Aes Sedai
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Game crashes.
Final Snark: The Pattern Demands Loot Boxes
At the end of the day, will we play this? Of course we will. We’re nerds. If it has a map, a leveling system, and a glowing purple sword named something like Twilight’s Whisper, we’re in.
But will it be the definitive Wheel of Time experience we’ve all dreamed of while skimming Egwene’s 47th inner monologue? Highly unlikely.
Still, we salute iwot Games for having the hubris to try. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll surprise us.
And if they don’t? Well, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. And sometimes the Wheel weaves another overhyped mess with a Day One patch the size of a Ta’veren’s ego.
Light help us all.
