Breaking Bad is the story of a science teacher turned infamous drug dealer, set to the backdrop of New Mexico with gunfights, gang drama, turf wars, and personable, hammy villains—all the bells and whistles of a good satirical GTA outing. They even have their own fictional fast food joint.
The two are very different but share a lot of similarities so it makes sense that creator Vince Gilligan once pitched a GTA-like video game adaptation.
"I'm not much of a video game player, but how can you not know Grand Theft Auto?" Gilligan said in an interview with Inside the Gilliverse podcast (thanks, ComicBook). "I remember saying to the guys, that are running Apple now, who said yes originally to Breaking Bad, 'Who owns Grand Theft Auto? Can't you have a module, can there be a Breaking Bad [game]?' [It] still makes sense to me!
"That never came to fruition. There have been quite a few attempts at video games, some of them kind of made it to market. We tried to do a VR experience with the Sony PlayStation VR headset. We did a mobile game that lasted for a little while."
All in all, there have been three or four attempts at making a Breaking Bad game, although none ever panned out. Walter White and Jesse remain strapped to the TV for now, but Gilligan is still interested in pursuing the world of gaming for these two amateur drugmakers turned most-wanted criminals.
But while he's still interested, he stressed that fans shouldn't get their hopes up. He might want to see Breaking Bad break into the world of games, but it's unlikely to happen anytime soon. According to Gilligan, the team wants to avoid making anything close to the ET Atari game, so quality is a key concern.
No Breaking Bad game and a few failed attempts might come as a disappointment, but Walter White's foray into the medium might not be completely burnt in a bathtub full of acid. MultiVersus character artist Dan Eder told fans he "would not say no" to bringing Walter into the platform fighter, so maybe one day we'll get to control Heisenberg and crush some skulls.