Skydance Merges Warner Bros. Games and Paramount Games Studio Into One Division, With Tony Driscoll in Charge

Skydance, the company formed by Paramount’s roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, is combining Warner Bros. Games with Paramount Games Studio into a single, unified games division. The merger closed on October 6, and according to an internal memo reported by Variety, the newly combined unit now oversees every major game studio and franchise that used to sit on either side of the deal.

One Roof for Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, and LEGO

Warner Bros. Games brings Avalanche Software (Hogwarts Legacy), NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat), Rocksteady Studios (the Batman: Arkham series and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), TT Games (the LEGO series), and WB Games Montreal into the fold, joining Paramount Games Studio, the in-house division Paramount only stood up this past June. Between them, the combined unit now controls games tied to Harry Potter, Batman and the wider DC roster, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, LEGO, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Godfather, one of the deepest franchise libraries any single games division has ever held.

Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software is one of several Warner Bros. Games studios now folded into Skydance’s combined games division.

Tony Driscoll Steps Up to Run the Combined Division

Tony Driscoll, who built Paramount Games Studio from scratch over the summer after stints at Epic Games, Warner Bros., AT&T, and Disney, becomes Skydance’s President of Games and Experiences, putting him in charge of the newly combined studio lineup on top of his existing corporate strategy and development duties. Skydance President Andy Gordon framed the move as part of a broader bet on the company’s non-streaming businesses, naming Games, Experiences, Consumer Products, and Publishing as the growth engines behind it.

“Investing in our future growth engines alongside our core ambitions in TV, Film.”

Andy Gordon, President of Skydance, via Variety

Bobby Kotick Joins the Board, Not the Studios

The same day the merger closed, former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick joined Skydance’s board of directors as an independent director and a member of its Nominating and Governance Committee. Skydance hasn’t given Kotick any operational role in Warner Bros. Games, Paramount Games Studio, or Skydance Games, so despite his history running one of gaming’s biggest publishers, he has no direct say over any of the studios now reporting to Driscoll.

What Comes Next

The two highest-profile projects likely to carry the combined division’s name are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, an action-adventure game in development at Platinum Games, and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, one of Paramount Games Studio’s first original productions. The merger only became possible after a federal judge approved Paramount’s antitrust settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general on September 30, clearing the last legal hurdle standing between the two companies. What happens to jobs across the newly combined studios, and whether any further consolidation follows, is something Skydance hasn’t addressed publicly yet.

Keep the adventure going! Check out more Gaming News on Gamersuniverse.

Picture Source: Paramount Games Studio, Warner Bros. Games