There is a debate to be had about which media format leads the way in terms of influencing the others. That is a question for another day, but the only certain thing is that it is far from black and white. One stark example of where literature, TV, and even film have embraced one genre, which the gaming industry has hitherto largely ignored, is so-called Nordic or Scandi Noir. So is it just a case of the two not being good bedfellows, or is this global hit still waiting in the wings to take the gaming market by storm?
Let’s not forget that part of Northern Europe is no backwater when it comes to gaming. N0tail, A.K.A. Danish national Johan Sundstein, is the most successful esports player on the planet. Finn Jesse Vainikka is the second. The highest earnings list is dotted with Scandinavian players, such as Lasse Urpalainen and Emil Bergquist Pedersen.
Switching gear slightly from esports to traditional sports is another area where the Nordic countries have both an interest and an influence. EA Sports’ FIFA series – recently featured in one of the most feel-good stories for some time – is as popular in Scandinavia as it is elsewhere in Europe.
Indeed, sports are a huge part of life across all of Europe, and Scandinavia is no different. As an example, Euro 2020 is the biggest event of this year, and though Norway is the only side in Scandinavia that has not actually qualified, Euro 2020 odds is one of the most popular searches throughout Emil Bergquist Pedersen’s and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s home nation.
Vikings are still the most universally popular characters to come out of Scandinavia
All of that aside, when the rest of the world was eating up anything and everything Nordic and Scandi, from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to Bordertown to The Valhalla Murders (the list goes on and on), the gaming industry turned a blind eye.
There are probably two main reasons for that. First of all, the huge specter of Norse mythology hangs over the industry like a dark, horned helmet. Assassin’s Creed has fully embraced it, of course, in its most recent incarnation and the Viking warrior makes for such a perfect hero for almost all gaming formats that it is perhaps understandable that the industry is reticent to water down the impact of a more modern interpretation of a region. That said, the cold, barren landscape of wartime Norway is used to brilliant effect in 2019’s Vigor.
The second reason, and probably the main one, is that as a genre it just would not work in gameplay. The Nordic Noir genre is based almost entirely around violence and murder – often brutally and creatively done – but the style tends to play out in a more subtle, slow-burning way that does not lend itself to being copied into an RPG or action-adventure format.
There are so many things that do work, many that work better in gaming than on the big screen, that you can imagine when the discussion has come up (which you know it will have), the answer was almost certainly “why would we?” The fact that the industry is not merely doing something because everyone else is, is a sign of its strength and self-confidence. So to answer the question in the title is it a missed opportunity or the next big thing, we can say with almost certainty, that it is neither.
