The last couple of years have seen several well-received Godzilla movies released, and parent company Toho is looking to grow that success beyond the silver screen. The Japanese studio has announced that it will invest $830 million in new games, anime, and other projects based on its IP, including Godzilla console games.
Toho plans to spend $490 million on content development alone, which will focus on a broad range of media as it pivots toward growing its brand overseas (via Bloomberg). In addition to an undefined number of Godzilla console games, the studio will also focus on animation, theme park attractions, and mobile games as part of its brand expansion strategy.
While Godzilla appeared in numerous video games over the decades, the last couple of years have seen the kaiju king relegated to crossovers and cameos. Games like Fall Guys have offered Godzilla cosmetics to players, while Call of Duty: Warzone featured Godzilla as an environmental hazard and enemy as part of its Operation Monarch event.
Recently, Godzilla has starred in several mobile games–and a turn-based strategy game heavily inspired by Into the Breach in 2022 called Godzilla: Voxel Wars–but the last big game featuring the titan was 2014’s Godzilla for the PS4, which was later released in Europe and the US in 2015. That game was met with negative reception upon release, and it has an average critic score of 38 on GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
“Godzilla commits so many game design sins that they become impossible to count, but the greatest horror of them all is that such giant monsters could be so boring,” Kevin VanOrd wrote in GameSpot’s Godzilla review, scoring the game 3/10.
While it’ll be a long time before Godzilla stomps his way back onto consoles, the cinematic future of the King of the Monsters looks bright. As mentioned above, a sequel to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One is in development, and Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse will see the Godzilla and King Kong franchises team up for a third time in a movie that is scheduled to be released on March 26, 2027.
