Events from the Mad Max 2015 video game are now considered canon according to notes spotted in a Furiosa film script. Television writer/Film Critic Drew McWeeny (Fear Itself, Masters of Horror, Voir) said that he was able to obtain a script for the next movie in the Mad Max franchise and according to it the game made by Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 1-4, Rage 2, The Hunter series, Generation Zero) is now considered canon. This shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise as the game did come out in the same year as Mad Max: Fury Road and does share some similarities.
Craziest thing? The notes in the script that make it clear the MAD MAX video game is canon.
— DrewMcWeeny (@DrewMcWeeny) December 30, 2023
Mad Max 2015 description and trailer (via Warner Bros. Games)
Play as Mad Max, a lone warrior who must embark on a dangerous journey after his Interceptor is stolen by a deadly gang of marauders.
A reluctant hero with an instinct for survival, Max wants nothing more than to leave the madness behind and find solace in the storied “Plains of Silence”
KEY FEATURES
Be Mad Max
* Become the legendary lone warrior as you craft and upgrade his equipment and weapons in order to survive in a brutal post-apocalyptic world
* Fight with savage moves and combos to brutalize the deranged bandits of the Wasteland
Intense Vehicular Combat
* Engage in dynamic, physics-based vehicular combat, taking down enemy vehicles with a slew of deadly weapons and customizable parts
* Choose from different car bodies and construct the ultimate war vehicle with dozens of upgrade combinations
Brave the Wasteland
* Explore an immense post-apocalyptic open world full of unique missions and side quests
* Scavenge every scrap you can find to build upgrades for your equipment and vehicles
* Take down eccentric bandits & gangs that roam the Wasteland
Fury Road and Beyond
The Mad Max 2015 video game received a fair amount of praise from fans and reviewers alike which considering how often movies are poorly translated to video games, and vice versa, was a bit of a shock. As it turns out, despite being around for over 30 years this was only the second game ever to be made for the franchise, although that wasn’t for a lack of trying. Fury Road ended up being the tipping point as its creator George Miller produced so much content for it that he planned not only for the movie to revive the franchise but was also said to be working with Production I.G. (Ghost in The Shell) for a Furiosa CGI anime project, and began collaborating with Cory Barlog (God Of War 2) on the video game.
For better or worse Mother Nature intervened with the floods during the filming of Fury Road and it was said that the studios removed George Miller from the video game project so he could focus exclusively on finishing the film. It was during this time that the game went from Santa Monica Studio to Avalanche Studios. YouTube channel Mad Max Bible has a great breakdown of these events (beginning at 12:14), as well as a history of all the attempts to bring the franchise into the video game realm.
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →Man, that was a fun and enjoyable game. What I appreciated is that the game was announced the very same year it came out, which is how things should be done. 2015 was a rough year for me, I got sick 5 times, with 4 of those being serious. Mad Max was one of the games I played that year that helped take my mind off the illnesses ravaging my body (as COVID-19 is doing to me right now).
I never once thought about or cared if the game was canon with the movie series.
I know the feeling, I was in the same boat in 2013, Beyond Two Souls was my distraction.
And I concur, games shouldn't be announced years in advance, 12 months at the most, that's it. But then again, the development cycle shouldn't be 10 years either, it is insane and unsustainable. It wasn't that long ago when it was no more than 2-3 years for any AAA title. I mean some studios put out a new AAA game every year, and they were not rushed or buggy garbage.
2008: Mass Effect
2009: Dragon Age Origins
2010: Mass Effect 2
2011: Dragon Age 2
2012: Mass Effect 3
2013: The Citadel (huge ME3 expansion)
2014: Dragon Age Inquisition
And now? Bioware put out Anthem in 2019 and since then nothing, they announced two games, both nowhere near release at the threshold of 2024.
You may want to recheck that list, dragon age 2 was extremely rushed so much so that they reused a couple slightly modified tiny zones for half the sidequests, could have used at least another year of production.
Mass effect 3's ending was so badly recieved they altered it.
And iirc Dragon age inquiqition launch was not great due to technical issues
Also Mass effect andromeda from 2017 is not mentioned and was a buggy mess at launch
Not saying these are bad games as I enjoyed most of them, but some were far from "finished" at launch.
Not to mention that there were a lot more companies involved in the making of these games then just bioware
for dragon age
BioWare
EA2D
Edge of Reality
TransGaming
Capital Games
Failbetter Games
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For mass effect
BioWare
Edge of Reality
Demiurge Studios
Straight Right
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I've had 10 years to make up my mind, and I'm intimately familiar with all those games. Dragon Age 2 happens to be my favorite game of the IP. The re-using of some assets seems more like a conscious decision than it being rushed, and overall it did little to make the game worse. And if you don't recall let me remind you that Mass Effect 1 did the exact same thing with its side missions. It is almost as if they were made by the same team using the same resource saving tactics, and I'm fine with it.
That has nothing to do with being rushed, it was an ill advised creative decision after the originally planned story arc leaked. And they didn't really alter it, more like doubled down on it by expanding it a bit. If anything the director's cut made it worse by leaving less room for alternate interpretations.
DAI was not great due to it being built like an MMO repurposed as a single player game. The technical issues it had was down to the fact that EA mandated the use of their in-house frostbite engine, which was ill suited for the task. (So much for EA not liking to meddle)
I pre-ordered ME:A and it was definitely not a buggy mess. It got misrepresented by a bunch of influencers and memers on social media. The reason I did not mention it because it came out 3 years later, so the development cycle already started to stretch by then. I specifically wanted to demonstrate with those examples that Bioware was not a small team as they put out a hit game almost every year between 2008 and 2014. Despite me not liking DA:I it was still a hit, that is why it is on the list.
I think you know that is a wild exaggeration. Every big game has glitches and bugs, hell CP2077 still has a ton after 3 years of patching and a total overhaul.
The use of external contractors for mocap, localization, QA and porting to other platforms is very common. Big studios rarely do everything in-house. Of course IDK what exactly all these companies did, but Demiurge was responsible for the PC port as far as I recall.