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Film production house Lionsgate has made what it has called a significant investment in Game of Thrones and The Walking dead game developer Telltale.
Following the deal the two firms are set to “explore opportunities" in co-developing existing and original IP into episodic games and TV shows. Lionsgate’s IP includes The Hunger Games and Divergent, while Telltale is said to be working on its own original projects.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner clarified that these plans include a new “super show” that it has been developing, which combines scripted television with interactive playable content. He added this did not mean it was an interactive series with a show or a TV show with a game, but “a story integrated in a way that only Telltale can do”.
Its first “super show” will be based on an original IP.
“Integrating these two radically different production styles is a huge challenge, but we’ve been producing games episodically for over ten years and have brought a lot of television production techniques to our game studio,” he said.
“Super Show episodes will also contain a lot of content, much more than a standard hour-long television episode. With this in mind, the release cadence will be more predictable like TV scheduling, but still a bit further apart like our games [are released] to allow newer audiences time to consume and discuss both aspects of the show across their game consoles, tablets, mobile phones and computers.”
As part of the investment into Telltale, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer has joined the studio’s board of directors. The exact investment figure has not been disclosed.
“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,” said Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner in a press release.
Telltale is not the first game studio Lionsgate has invested in. Last year, the firm appointed Nerdist Industries CEO Peter Levin as president of Interactive Ventures and Games to expand the company’s new games business. In July, the firm invested in Finnish start-up Next Games. It is not clear if the studio will be working on a game related to Lionsgate IP or a brand new project.
