Daedalic Entertainment and Bastei Lübbe AG, shareholder of Daedalic and publisher of Ken Follett’s novels in German-speaking markets, are teaming up to create a multimedia experience of one of Follett’s masterpieces, The Pillars of the Earth. Follett is also working on a new novel that will take readers back to the fictitious medieval town of Kingsbridge in South England.

Thomas Schierack, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG: Simultaneously to the release of the third Kingsbridge novel in fall 2017, the video game based on The Pillars of the Earth will be published on all consoles, PC and mobile devices. We are very proud to not only prolong our long lasting and successful partnership with the exceptional, best-selling author Ken Follett, but to also extend it to new media channels.

Ken Follett: I’m delighted that Bastei Lübbe will publish my next book, a new story about Kingsbridge, the fictional town in which I set The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. I’m hoping to finish it in time for publication in 2017. I’m thrilled that The Pillars of the Earth – which is probably my most famous book – is going to be turned into a computer game by Daedalic, now part of the Lübbe organisation. I believe this will bring my work to the attention of a new generation of readers. I’ve been working with Bastei Lübbe, and with the Lübbe-family, for 35 years now. It has been a most congenial partnership, and a very successful one. So I’m very happy that our association is being continued in these exciting ways.

Carsten Fichtelmann, founder and CEO of Daedalic Entertainment: We are very aware of and feeling the responsibility that comes along with this project: The Pillars of the Earth is one of world literature’s most-read and best-selling books, and comes with a large and long-lasting base of millions of fans. To meet their high expectations of our game will be a tremendous challenge – but one we are very eager to face. Together with Bastei Lübbe and Ken Follett we determined that the genre of adventure games is the best and most suitable way to adapt and express the substantial depth of such a historical novel. Adventure games are interactive literature, and we at Daedalic dedicated ourselves to the perfection of this genre’s playing experience. We are very happy and feel extremely honored that our work is being acknowledged by one of the world’s best-selling authors, and to be allowed to take his work into interactivity.

Felix Rudloff, chief executive of programme and PR at Bastei Lübbe AG: To our knowledge, this will be the first time for a computer game of this scale to be published simultaneously with the new book of an international best-selling author. There will not only be a positive marketing effect by the novel on the game. Vice-versa, we believe the game will also increase the interest in the new book.

The Pillars of the Earth, published in 1989, takes place in medieval England, in the fictitious town of Kingsbridge. Setting around the building of a cathedral, the historical novel traces the development and disputes between clergy, nobility and the simple people, suffering from exploitation.
 
Bastei Lübbe and Daedalic Entertainment will publish the game in 2017 in several countries as a retail version, as well as digitally worldwide on PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and iOS. The game will be translated in up to ten languages.