Steven Spielberg’s love of video games is well documented. There are many photos of him posing next to classic arcade games such as Donkey Kong, Missile Command and Space Invaders. He has been involved in various video game projects over the years, including directing the film adaptation of Ready Player One.
While many adults lose their passion for gaming as they get older, Spielberg is clearly still into it. There’s only one thing: he doesn’t like controllers.
“He loves role-playing games and I’m always trying to get him to play Uncharted because it’s Indiana Jones, and I’m like, ‘Hey, you’d appreciate that.’ But he said, “I don’t know how to make controllers. I only know keyboard and mouse,” said his son Max Spielberg, himself a game developer, in interview with MinnMax.
His reluctance is apparently so strong that when Spielberg’s son showed off his game, a co-op roguelite published by Dreamhaven, he had to be the one to demonstrate it because his father wouldn’t pick up the controller. Hey, at least Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves supports mouse and keyboard on Steam, right?
In any case, Max says that the game is an important connecting point between the two. “He loves games. He’s the one who got me into this. Playing games. He is a huge PC gamer. It is also our connecting point. He says, “Hey, what’s good? What Call of Duty should you be playing? Send me a list of your top five shooting games and I’ll download them and we can play them together when you come home.
He adds: “It’s always Call of Duty. He loves Call of Duty. A story campaign game.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Max shares several stories about Steven Spielberg’s connections to the gaming industry, including the time he received a demo of Wii Sports from Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto. For his part, Steven Spielberg is challenging at work on his next film, which is said to be about UFOs and is scheduled for release in 2026.
Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage
Kat Bailey is IGN’s news director and co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Got a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
