No. BLACKWOOD is not a John Wick game, and the reason is not that we looked for a connection and came up empty. It is that both games have published who made them, and the names do not match. BLACKWOOD is developed by AttritoM7 Productions and published by IZilla Games with AttritoM7. The John Wick game people are thinking of is developed by Saber Interactive and licensed from Lionsgate, the studio that owns the films.
There really are two separate things here, and this page exists to keep them apart. It sticks to facts that are printed in public announcements, and it is careful to say which of its two answers is solid and which one is only the absence of contrary information.
Two different games, two different studios
The licensed John Wick game was announced on 12 February 2026, at Sony's State of Play showcase, in a joint announcement from Lionsgate and Saber Interactive. The press release is unambiguous about who is behind it: it is headlined as Lionsgate announcing an AAA John Wick video game with Saber Interactive, and describes a game "based on Lionsgate's billion-dollar John Wick franchise". Sources are first-hand and still up: the Saber Interactive announcement and the PlayStation Blog post, which is written by Saber's own game director.
BLACKWOOD has a different studio, a different publisher and no film licensor named anywhere in its materials. That is what makes the answer to the identity question a flat no rather than a probably-not. It is not "no link was found" — it is "both lines of ownership were found, and they lead to different companies".
Side by side, on facts that can be checked
| Fact | BLACKWOOD | The licensed John Wick game |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | AttritoM7 Productions | Saber Interactive |
| Publisher | IZilla Games and AttritoM7 Productions | Announced jointly by Lionsgate and Saber Interactive |
| Licensed film IP | None named in any official material we checked | John Wick, licensed from Lionsgate, the rights holder |
| Title | BLACKWOOD, final | No final title yet. The press release uses "Untitled John Wick Game" as a placeholder, in quotation marks |
| Announced | Release date announcement on Steam, 26 August 2026 | 12 February 2026, at Sony's State of Play showcase |
| Platforms | Windows 10/11 64-bit, per store data on 15 September 2026 | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, named in the Saber announcement itself |
| Release date | Act 1 dated 16 September 2026 in the 26 August announcement | Not announced. The announcement says the title and the release date will both be revealed later |
| Release window beyond that | Act 2 around March 2027 and Act 3 around September 2027, both given as approximate | — |
| How its own material describes it | "A gritty third-person action thriller", also "cinematic third-person shooter" | "A new AAA video game" based on the John Wick franchise, "tailored for mature audiences" |
| Setting | Brooklyn, 2012 | An original narrative set in the John Wick timeline, years before the Impossible Task |
| Film cast and crew | — | Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves involved in production, Reeves reprising his character's look and voice |
| Players | Single-player, per store data on 15 September 2026 | — |
A dash means the announcements do not cover it, and the cell stays empty rather than being filled in from impression. There are three. Two of them are on the John Wick side: no release window at all beyond a date still to be revealed, and no mention of single-player or multiplayer anywhere in either post. The third is film cast and crew on the BLACKWOOD side, where no film name appears in any of its material.
The release window is the one worth checking against, because a year travels easily: if you have seen that game given a 2026 window, that window is not in either official post. Both say the release date is still to be revealed, and neither names a year, so there is no official window for this page to pass on.
Everything in the BLACKWOOD column comes from the developer announcements of 26 August 2026 and earlier, plus the 15 September 2026 snapshot of its store data. Everything in the other column comes from the two announcement posts of 12 February 2026 linked above. Note what the release row does not say: it gives the date the developer put on Act 1, and nothing about the state of the build at the moment you are reading this.
Is there a business connection between them?
This is the second question, and it gets a weaker answer than the first one, on purpose.
As of 16 September 2026, there is no public information indicating a licence, a partnership, a crossover or shared assets between BLACKWOOD and the John Wick franchise, Lionsgate or Saber Interactive. We checked in three directions: BLACKWOOD's own channels, which never mention John Wick; third-party coverage, which consistently uses like, style and inspired by rather than official or licensed; and targeted searches for a licence, which turn up nothing.
That is a search that came back empty, which is a different kind of finding from the one above. It is worth knowing, and it is the best available answer, but it is not the same as either company stating that no relationship exists. Neither has published such a statement, and we are not going to write one on their behalf. If that changes, this page changes with it.
Where the John Wick comparison comes from
Not from either publisher. It comes from coverage and from video titles.
At least six unrelated YouTube channels have put some form of "like John Wick" or "John Wick-style" in the title of a BLACKWOOD video, usually pairing it with Max Payne, and one of them simply asks outright whether this is a new John Wick game. The recurring terms in those titles are third-person, gunplay combined with close-quarters takedowns, a New York crime setting, and cinematic. Written coverage runs the same way, describing BLACKWOOD as a game in that mould.
One caveat on that evidence, since it is easy to over-count. A number of the highest-viewed BLACKWOOD videos, including the IGN gameplay deep-dive, are partner re-cuts of official material rather than independent takes, so they say nothing about how outsiders see the game. The count of six above deliberately rests on unaffiliated channels choosing that wording themselves.
What the published material cannot answer yet
A mechanics comparison is not possible from what exists. BLACKWOOD has published very little about how its combat works, and the John Wick game is still at announcement stage, with no systems described at all — a feature-by-feature table would be two columns of guesswork.
The same gap covers which of the two plays better. One has just been dated and the other has no date, so there is no play on record for either, from us or from anyone else.
And on whether the films influenced BLACKWOOD, the record is empty in both directions: no interview, developer post or announcement addresses it. What exists is other people's comparison, which is the section above.
If you came here to work out what BLACKWOOD actually is, the two things it has published most about are its structure, covered in Is BLACKWOOD an Open World Game?, and the shop you run between jobs, covered in The DVD Store. Neither has a counterpart in the other game.
FAQ
What is the John Wick game actually called?
It has no final title yet. The Lionsgate and Saber press release refers to it throughout in quotation marks as the "Untitled John Wick Game", which makes that a placeholder rather than a name. The PlayStation Blog post is explicit about it: "Stay tuned for the game's official title and release date; we'll reveal both in time."
Which of the two has Keanu Reeves in it?
The Saber Interactive one. Its announcement says franchise director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves are both involved in production, with Reeves signed on to reprise his character's look and voice. BLACKWOOD has published nothing of the kind, and no film cast or crew is named in any of its official material.
Is BLACKWOOD on PS5 and Xbox, the way the John Wick game will be?
Not at launch. In the store data we pulled on 15 September 2026, BLACKWOOD lists Windows 10/11 64-bit only, while the John Wick game was announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The platform question has its own page: see [BLACKWOOD on PS5 and Xbox](/ps5-xbox/).
Does BLACKWOOD mention John Wick anywhere in its own materials?
Not in what we checked. In the 15 September 2026 snapshot of the Steam store data, the phrase "John Wick" does not appear anywhere in the description, and the developer site attritom7.com does not use it either. The game describes itself as a gritty third-person action thriller.