The hit AMC show Breaking Bad, which ended back in 2013, still lives on as one of the best pieces of television drama ever produced. There have been lots of talks about a possible spin-off into a game, but it never really materialized until now.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there's a new project in the works from FTX Games based around Breaking Bad. The game will apparently be an empire-building game, similar to the likes of Omerta, or the Tycoon games.
The article states that the name of the game will be Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements, and it will be a free-to-play mobile game with FTX Games at the publishing helm and Plamee working as the developer.
Plamee is labeled as a mid-core developer, which means that the outfit focuses on casual games and some slightly more core games for people who want tactically relevant games, with a diverse range in its library such as Army of Heroes and Cake Story, the latter of which is more like a Candy Crush clone.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the game also managed to get the thumbs up from the original executive producer of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, who told the prominent media outlet that the publisher seems to be taking care in crafting a worthwhile story that involves the original characters from the show, including Jesse and Walt, along with Gus Fring, Saul Goodman from the show Better Call Saul, and Mike Ehrmantraut.
It's explained that players will need to navigate the risky business of operating a meth distribution empire by formulating recipes and either out-selling or out-strong arming the competition. You won't be playing as Heisenberg, though. You'll be attempting to establish something much greater and much bigger.
Unfortunately, we don't get to see any of the gameplay, so we have no idea what it will be like, but it's probably going to be similar to a lot of other mobile empire-building games out there, like Mafia or Game of War, or Clash of Clans.
Even though the Hollywood Reporter managed to get the scoop on the game, the outlet was sadly left bereft of any details on the actual gameplay mechanics.
It's a little difficult to see how the game will be story-oriented if it's free-to-play, given that most times this means that the game will have a multiplayer component of some sort and a cash shop. But, maybe it will be a single-player focused free-to-play game? A few of those exist out there, like Metal Assault or Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Players will have to navigate a dangerous world involving various "moral dilemmas" and arch-rivals while attempting to keep the business out of sight from the law. However, once again we don't know exactly how this will all tie into the game, or whether it will be story driven with some choice-based options sprinkled in between. According to the article you can expect to see Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements make its debut on mobile devices at the end of the year.
