Activision Blizzard, the world’s second largest gaming company, announced the launch of an internal film studio – Activision Blizzard Studios, which will produce films and TV series based on the company’s gaming IP.
The latter, we recall, include such major brands as Destiny, Stracraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga and others.
However, the company will not start with them. The studio’s first project will be an animated series based on the Skylanders series of games, for which Eric Rogers is responsible, previously noted only for being an assistant to writers at Futurama. The pilot series will be released in the second quarter of 2016.
It is also already known that the studio plans to take up the film adaptation of Call of Duty. In what capacity is still unclear.
One of the leaders (the second was not named) of Activision Blizzard Studios was Nick van Dyk, who previously served as senior vice president for corporate strategy and business development at The Walt Disney Company. According to VentureBeat, there Duke played an important role in the takeover of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.
Activision Blizzard’s move is significant, but far from original. It only highlights the existing trend in which gaming companies are trying to expand the sphere of influence of their brands.
Recall that at the moment Rovio is preparing to launch a cartoon based on Angry Birds. Plus, Ubisoft, together with New Regency and Fox, is making a film based on the Assassin’s Creed series, starring Michael Fassbender.
Do not forget about the Activision Blizzard division – Blizzard Entertainment, which gave the green light to Legendary Pictures to launch the production of the Warcraft movie, whose trailer was presented last Friday.
Sources: Activision Blizzard, Venturebeat