Telltale Games Has A New Investor In Lionsgate Entertainment
Lionsgate is expanding its entertainment opportunities as an investor in Telltale Games, according to a press release on their site. The video game studio rose to prominence with their adventure style games. Their most recent titles are based on AMC’s The Walking Dead and HBO’s Game of Thrones.
According to Variety, Lionsgate is investing in Telltale Games to expand beyond its core business model of feature length films and television production. Lionsgate is the seventh most profitable studio in Hollywood which began with American Psycho and more recent releases such as The Hunger Games and Twilight.
The backing of Telltale by Lionsgate has a few obvious benefits for the video game studio which has built its reputation on adaptations of licensed properties. The partnership will enable Telltale to continue developing additional games and work with Lionsgate to co-produced games that can be turned into movies or television shows. With mobile games such as “Hunger Games” and “John Wick” under Lionsgate’s belt, they are most likely hoping to continue the push into the lucrative gaming space.
GamesIndustry.biz quoted Peter Levin who oversees the mobile game division at Lionsgate,
“The convergence between premium filmed entertainment brands and original game properties is a natural direction in which to continue diversifying our content business, and Telltale is the perfect partner with whom to explore this dynamic area of growth.”
Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner joins the Lionsgate board of directors as part of the investment.
Bruner went on to say that the partnership will allow Telltale games to create more original IP in conjunction with Lionsgate allowing for multiple platform appeal such as TV shows based of an original game from the video game studio.
“Lionsgate has a great track record in developing and marketing feature films as well as platform-defining premium scripted television. This partnership will accelerate Telltale’s ability to create not only original games, but episodic television series based on our game properties – an area at the cutting edge of industry growth.” – Kevin Bruner
Telltale Games was founded in 2004 primarily by former LucasArts designers who wanted to recapture the classic point-and-click adventure game genre in a modern interpretation. The studio’s first success was in an old LucasArts property, Sam & Max, which saw the studio release the game in episodes on a planned schedule, a first for the video game industry. Based on the success of the series, Telltale gradually moved onto bigger projects such as Monkey Island, Back to the Future, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones. You can read the Inquisitor‘s coverage of the second episode in Game of Thrones here.
[Image Source | Telltale Games]
