Variety is reporting that Paramount, a subsidiary of Viacom, is set to begin publishing games, particularly low-budget portable titles, later this year:
The studio has expanded its interactive department team and is putting together a slate of games that it will partially or completely finance and for which it will more directly oversee development. Games will be based either on new Par films or catalog titles.
Details on Par’s inaugural self-published or co-published games weren’t available, but the first few are expected to come out later this year.
Studio is looking to invest in all types of videogames but is particularly interested in casual, handheld and mobile games, as they can be made for only a few million dollars, compared with the $20 million or more it costs to produce a title for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
“We are entering into deals now where we will be publishing games this year,” said Sandi Isaacs, Par’s senior veep of interactive and mobile. “There’s going to be a slate where in some cases we’re publishing, in some cases we’re co-publishing, or in others we’re funding development and another publisher buys it. It’s important for us to have a flexible model.”
To support this new effort, the company has added Activison vet Matt Chandler as VP of Interactive Development, and former Sega executive Luke Letizia as Executive Director of Interactive Licensing.
Paramount will have one other film studio-turned game publisher rival in the form of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, which owns Lego Star Wars developer Traveler’s Tales.
Viacom’s other game-friendly subsidiary, MTV Games, is the publisher of 2007’s smash hit Rock Band.
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