Paramount Gets Serious About Video Games

Paramount wants to be Player One in video games.

The company, currently in the regulatory process of its Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, is launching Paramount Games Studio. The Tony Driscoll-led video game studio will combine existing games studios Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media, and draw heavily from Paramount’s IP. To this point, Paramount’s gaming endeavors have mostly been through the licensing of its library properties to third parties.

Paramount Games Studio plans to make AAA games.

Paramount and Skydance were merged by David Ellison last summer, and now he’s paying $111 billion to get Warner Bros. Discovery; WB Games just launched a new LEGO Batman game. It released Hogwart’s Legacy in 2023. The Paramount Skydance/WBD merger is expected to close later this year.

“This division launch marks a meaningful evolution in how we think about games — not as an extension of our business, but as a core pillar of our content strategy alongside film, television, and streaming,” Driscoll said in a statement.

Driscoll has more than two decades of senior leadership experience spanning entertainment, media and emerging technology, including roles at Epic Games, Warner Bros., AT&T, and Disney. Driscoll will continue to serve as Paramount’s head of Corporate Strategy and Development. In that capacity, he is presently leading the company’s integration planning effort for the Warner Bros. Discovery transaction.

The Paramount Games Studio senior leadership team will also consist of:

Dan Prigg, executive vice president, head of Games

Shawn Kittelsen, senior vice president, head of Creative & Production

Andrea Silvers, senior vice president, Marketing and Communications

Kara Bilkiss, senior vice president, Business Development & Licensing

Ray Davis, senior vice president of Engineering

Prigg has held senior roles at Scopely and Discovery; Kittelsen has performed narrative work on Mortal Kombat, The Walking Dead, Invincible and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Silvers has worked in a leadership capacity at Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Xero, and DocSend; Bilkiss counts Activision Blizzard King, Sony Pictures and The Walt Disney Company on her résumé; and Davis was a key contributor to Gears of War, Unreal Engine 4, Xbox, Kinect, and HoloLens.

Their first titles will include Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and an untitled Star Wars game. Other titles are expected to be announced during Summer Game Fest, currently taking place in Los Angeles, on Friday.

Variety first reported the news.