We sometimes too often think of directors as straight-faced stiffs, their only passion in life being celluloid. But with all of the pressures that go into making a major motion picture, of course they want to unwind, too. And quite a few do it with video games, with some of its biggest fans found in the likes of Guillermo del Toro, John Carpenter and even Steven Spielberg. Just don’t give Steve a controller!
Max Spielberg recently said of his father, “He loves gaming, he’s the one that got me into it. He plays games, he’s a big PC gamer and so that’s kind of our bonding point as well. He’s like, ‘Hey what’s good, what new Call of Duty should I be playing, send me a list of the top five shooters, I’ll get ‘em downloaded and we can play ‘em together when you come over to the house.’” OK, we all have to admit that the 77-year-old wanting to bond with his nearly 40-year-old son is cool, but that he wants to do it over video games is immensely so.
Max Spielberg added, “It’s always a Call of Duty. He loves Call of Duty, he enjoys the campaign. He’s big into story games and I’m always trying to get him to play Uncharted, y’know ‘It’s Indiana Jones, you’d appreciate this’, and he’s always, ‘I can’t do controllers, I only do keyboard and mouse.’” Steven Spielberg might have his worlds collide soon enough, as the upcoming Indy game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be available on PC. But will he play it…?
But it’s not just the PC that Steven Spielberg huddles behind, it’s his phone – damn kids… “He also plays a lot of mobile games, he’s big into Golf Clash and stuff like that, anything he can play on the side. ‘Is your game coming to mobile?’”
Steven Spielberg is, of course, no stranger to the world of video games and has a lengthy history with them, contributing extensively to Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games, formerly known as LucasArts. Spielberg’s own Saving Private Ryan has also been credited for helping launch the Call of Duty series, with a number of entries – including the very first – being set during World War II. And who can forget all of the great video games more directly adapted from his movies, like Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial? Oh… Outside of those, here’s an oft-forgotten one: computer game Steven Spielberg’s Director’s Chair, which, while promising sounding, stands more as an oddball piece of media than anything. Where else can you get a collaboration between Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Penn & Teller?
If you could recommend one video game to Steven Spielberg, what would it be? Drop your pick below!