Paramount Skydance has launched Paramount Games Studio, a new division that combines Skydance Interactive, Skydance New Media, and Paramount’s gaming operations into a single organization. The move brings game development in-house around a dedicated studio structure, with Paramount positioning gaming as a core business alongside film, television, and streaming. The company also confirmed that Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and Skydance New Media’s untitled Star Wars game remain in development as the newly formed division prepares to unveil its first AAA title.
The launch fills one of the last major gaps in David Ellison’s post-merger restructuring effort. While Paramount has historically licensed its intellectual property to outside game publishers, the new studio gives the company a centralized operation focused on developing, producing, and managing interactive entertainment across both existing franchises and original properties.
Paramount Is Building Direct Ownership Around Interactive Entertainment
For years, Paramount’s gaming business primarily revolved around licensing. The company generated revenue by allowing outside developers and publishers to build games around its franchises while retaining limited involvement in development itself.
Paramount Games Studio changes that structure.
The new division brings development, creative leadership, business operations, licensing, engineering, and production under a single umbrella. Tony Driscoll will lead the division while longtime Skydance Games executives Dan Prigg and Shawn Kittelsen take key operational and creative leadership roles.
The decision aligns gaming more closely with how major media companies increasingly manage valuable intellectual property. Rather than treating games as adjacent products, Paramount is creating an internal organization capable of building long-term interactive franchises.
Amy Hennig’s New Role Signals a Premium Content Strategy
One of the most notable leadership changes involves Amy Hennig, who moves from co-president of Skydance New Media into the role of studio creative director.
Hennig’s reputation was built on narrative-driven blockbuster development. Her appointment places creative storytelling at the center of Paramount’s gaming ambitions as the company prepares to release its first internally organized slate.
The continued development of Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and the Lucasfilm collaboration provides an early indication of the type of projects Paramount intends to prioritize. Both titles sit firmly in the AAA category and reflect a strategy focused on premium franchise experiences rather than smaller licensing initiatives.
That approach carries meaningful risk. AAA development requires substantial investment, lengthy production cycles, and disciplined execution. It also offers significantly greater upside when successful.
Gaming Creates a New Layer of Franchise Engagement
The larger opportunity extends beyond game sales.
Interactive entertainment allows media companies to keep audiences engaged with franchises for months or years at a time. A successful game deepens audience investment in characters, worlds, and storylines while creating additional touchpoints across film, television, consumer products, and streaming.
Paramount controls a deep catalog of globally recognized franchises, including Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mission: Impossible, and SpongeBob SquarePants. A centralized studio gives the company greater flexibility in determining which properties warrant internal development, which are best suited for partnerships, and where original gaming IP could eventually support broader franchise expansion.
As entertainment companies continue searching for ways to increase engagement and lifetime customer value, gaming offers one of the few categories capable of competing with streaming for audience attention.
Ellison’s Broader Strategy Comes Into Focus
The formation of Paramount Games Studio reflects a larger effort to build stronger control around intellectual property and content creation.
Over the past year, Ellison has reshaped multiple parts of the organization around the idea that franchises should move more efficiently across film, television, streaming, and emerging distribution channels. Gaming remained one of the few major content categories operating outside that framework.
That gap has now been closed.
By combining existing Skydance game assets with Paramount’s intellectual property portfolio, the company is creating a structure designed to support both franchise expansion and original content creation within a rapidly growing entertainment category.
The Streaming Wars Take
Paramount Games Studio isn’t simply a reorganization of existing assets. It’s an acknowledgement that gaming has become too important to sit outside the core business.
The company now has direct control over development, creative strategy, production, and franchise planning across interactive entertainment. That gives Paramount more opportunities to extend audience relationships beyond traditional viewing windows and create additional value from its intellectual property portfolio.
Gaming has become one of the largest entertainment businesses in the world. Paramount’s decision to build an internal studio signals that the company wants a larger role in creating that value rather than simply licensing access to it.
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