Paramount Skydance Forms Unified Paramount Games Studio Under Tony Driscoll, Reveals PlatinumGames-Made TMNT: The Last Ronin
Paramount Skydance launched an in-house games division on June 5, folding Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media into one studio and unveiling a TMNT: The Last Ronin game at Summer Game Fest.
Overview
Paramount Skydance has launched a dedicated in-house video game division, consolidating its scattered gaming operations under a single banner and using its debut moment to put a marquee licensed title back in the spotlight. On Friday, June 5, the company unveiled Paramount Games Studio, naming Tony Driscoll its president, according to Variety. The same week, the studio used Summer Game Fest to reveal its first project: a game adaptation of the acclaimed comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, developed by Platinum Games, as reported by Variety.
What We Know
The new division combines Skydance’s two existing game studios, Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media, with Paramount’s intellectual property, according to Variety. Driscoll, the company’s head of corporate strategy and development, takes on the president role and is intended to serve in both positions concurrently, per Variety.
The leadership bench under Driscoll includes Dan Prigg as executive vice president, head of games, and Shawn Kittelsen as senior vice president, head of creative and production, Variety reported. Amy Hennig moved from her role as co-president of Skydance New Media to studio creative director, according to the same report.
The consolidated unit inherits an existing slate that includes Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and an untitled Star Wars game, both in development, per Variety.
The First Project
Paramount Games Studio brought the combined Paramount-Skydance in-house studio’s first project to Summer Game Fest on Friday with the reveal of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, according to Variety. The title is described as a AAA action-adventure game based on the comic series that follows the last surviving Ninja Turtle as he embarks on a desperate mission for vengeance, Variety reported.
The game is being developed by Platinum Games and published by Paramount Games Studio, per Variety. Platinum Games is the studio behind NieR: Automata and Bayonetta, as noted by GamesRadar+.
The trailer for The Last Ronin premiered during the Summer Game Fest event at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, offering a quick tease at the dark story to come in AAA form, Variety reported. Paramount confirmed the title will be available for both console and PC, though no release date has been set, per Variety.
Beyond The Last Ronin, the studio is developing a Star Trek title called Shadow Frontier, as well as an untitled “dark academia” RPG based on all-new, original intellectual property, according to Variety. Prigg described the original project as one “set in a fantasy high school kind of moment” with “a mechanic that we’re getting excited about that plays into relationships,” Variety reported.
Strategy
The reorganization reframes how the media conglomerate positions games within its broader content business. “Games are no longer an extension of the business; they’re a core driver of storytelling, community and growth across Paramount,” Driscoll said, as quoted by Variety.
Kittelsen characterized the shift away from how games had previously been treated, describing them as having been “somewhere at the bottom of the flywheel,” where the company was “trying to tie movie releases to movie-based games, or it was just an afterthought,” according to Variety.
What We Don’t Know
No release date or window has been announced for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, and the platforms have been confirmed only at the level of “console and PC” rather than specific systems, per Variety. Release timing for the Star Trek game Shadow Frontier and the untitled original RPG was not disclosed, according to Variety.