A former PlayStation narrative lead is urging the creators of the Until Dawn film to acknowledge the original game writers in the movie credits.
As reported by Eurogamer, Kim MacAskill's petition calls on Sony, a major force in gaming, to set a new standard by updating the Until Dawn credits. The petition specifically asks Sony to "revise their approach to crediting intellectual property, especially in cross-media adaptations."
"I recently worked on Until Dawn, where the film's director, writers, and others were all credited. However, instead of acknowledging the key developers who built this iconic game Sony is clearly proud of, they simply noted it was 'based on the Sony game'," MacAskill stated.
"Those developers dedicated years of intense effort to create something amazing, and audiences deserve to know their names... Instead, they received no credit, no gratitude, and no recognition."
MacAskill elaborated further in a LinkedIn post, questioning the contrast with HBO's adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us—which credits both the studio and Neil Druckmann as writer and director—and Sony's approach to the Until Dawn film.
The director claimed that Sony executives "firmly informed" her that "the intellectual property I personally developed would never be credited to me because I was a salaried employee (no royalties, no control, no ownership, no acknowledgment)." Addressing Sony directly, she added, "I find it difficult to reconcile the favorable treatment given to Neil Druckmann with the policy applied to others within your company."
She explained that when she inquired about the rights to the intellectual property she helped create while employed at Sony, a company representative told her they "understood" her perspective but that it was "not something Sony could accommodate," stressing it was "nothing personal" and that the policy was "firmly applied across the entire company."
"All I wanted was proper credit and possibly enough ownership rights to be involved in adaptations," she continued.
"I am calling on Sony to revise how they handle intellectual property credits, particularly for cross-media projects," the director wrote in the petition. "Granting an executive producer credit or similar acknowledgment would honor the creators whose vision and dedication brought these incredible stories and designs to life, profoundly impacting the entertainment industry."
"Let's stand up not just for the creators of Until Dawn, but for the integrity of our industry. By ensuring creative contributions are properly recognized, we can inspire future generations of creators to dream beyond existing limits. Please sign this petition to urge Sony… and stand with all game developers… in demanding the recognition they deserve in transmedia storytelling."
In related news, we recently learned that one of the PlayStation Plus titles for May 2025 is likely Until Dawn Remastered. This may be a promotional move for the new Until Dawn movie, which premiered just before the weekend. The film did not particularly stand out in our assessment; we gave it a 5/10, noting in IGN's Until Dawn movie review: "Until Dawn is more of a letdown than a scare, abandoning the horror game's potential for a muddled rehash of horror movie tropes."
