Michael Bay working on FPS with $25m budget

Hollywood special effects group Digital Domain is hoping to capitalise on the convergence between film and games with a new strategy geared towards games development – and its first game is a first person shooter put together by Armageddon and Pearl Harbour director Michael Bay. The company also plans to acquire a games company this year.

Bay is co-chairman of Digital Domain after he helped investment team Wyndham holdings purchase the company last year for $35m. His new game will be made on a budget of $25m.

In an interview with the LA Times, Bay said: "I make world-class images. Why not put those images into a game?"

Digital Domain previously worked on effects for movies like Titanic and the Day After Tomorrow – but it plans to move into games development as its movie business feels the pinch from low-cost production in Asia and Europe. Wyndham is putting $100m into the business over the next three years as it ramps up its work slate to make room for four or five games productions.

Wyndham principal Carl Stork, formerly from Microsoft, has already hired three former ILM execs to head up Digital Domain, and has said the company will add about 100 staff to its ranks, many of them game programmers. He also said the company plans to acquire in order to grow.

We see ourselves being the next-generation digital-content studio," Stork said. "It’s like we’re a new, start-up company."