Creatures of Sonaria, a popular mini-game featured in Roblox, is being made into a TV series.

As reported by Deadline, the deal has been done “inspired by the recent success of The Last of Us”.

The project is being spearheaded by former Lucasfilm executive Catherine Winder, executive producer on the long-running Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, now at her new company Wind Sun Sky.

More recently, Winder has worked on The Angry Birds Movie and its sequel.

Creatures of Sonaria is a fantasy survival mini-game where you play as a magical creature in a world full of dragons and other fantastical beasts. Here’s a little taste:

Wind Sun Sky will now adapt the mini-game’s world into a “rich universe” for your TV screens. The project is the first Roblox mini-game to be adapted in this way.

“We will continue to look for rich universes with cross platform, immersive potential, like Creatures of Sonaria, to partner up with and extend into the kind of gamified storyworlds that global audiences and fans are looking for in the metaverse,” Winder said.

There’s no word yet on when the series might debut.

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A new lawsuit has been filed against major gaming companies Roblox, Microsoft, Epic Games, and Mojang AB in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleges that the companies encourage compulsive gaming that has led a 15-year-old girl to develop significant social and mental problems. 

The lawsuit says that Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite have incorporated operant conditioning into their games, offering players rewards to continue playing. Operant conditioning is a learning process where behavior is modified by stimuli. 

It says the companies use the “outrageous, unethical, reckless” technique with the goal of increasing the time children spend playing their games. 

Girl Suffering From Gaming Addiction

The unnamed girl began playing Minecraft at 6 years old and later extended her gaming to Roblox, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and several other titles. She now plays games for more than six hours a day and suffers a range of problems as a result. 

Problems cited in the lawsuit include social isolation, physical inactivity, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, digestive issues, loss of interest in previous hobbies and entertainment, deceiving family members or others regarding the amount of gaming, and the use of games to escape or relieve negative emotions.

The lawsuit claims that the companies employ psychologists with the specific goal of creating addicted gamers. In addition, they have suppressed the American Psychological Association (APA) from recognizing video game addiction as a disorder. The APA offers a more general definition, placing it under the category of internet gaming disorder. 

“This deliberate misclassification has resulted in patient abandonment, leaving children

suffering from video game addiction without access to the necessary medical diagnosis and

Treatment,” says the complaint.

Companies Profiting From In-Game Purchases

The 87-page complaint demands compensation for the girl’s spending on the games. It says each company “is aware that continuous and excessive use of video game products

increases its revenue, as the more time a player spends on its products, the greater the likelihood that the player will make in-game purchases.”

It likens in-game purchases to microbetting, terming small, low-cost purchases as microtransactions, which quickly accumulate to lead to financial losses. 

In addition to seeking damages, it also wants the games to display warning messages that they are conditioning players. 

Similar Lawsuits Seek Damages

A similar lawsuit was filed against the same companies in March, claiming that they have irresponsibly created addictive games that harm children. 

The complaint was filed by the family of an 18-year-old in Michigan. The complaint said that he started gaming at 11 years old and now plays for 12 to 14 hours a day. According to the lawsuit, 

“he is incapable of restraining his own usage, as are the people around him”.

Last month, Roblox agreed to pay $23 million to Alabama and West Virginia to settle child-safety investigations. The states claimed that the platform exposed young users to predators, grooming, and sexual and violent content.

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