Skydance merges Warner Bros. Games and Paramount's games studio, and puts Bobby Kotick on its board

After Paramount's $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, Rocksteady, NetherRealm and TT Games join Paramount Games Studio in one division under Tony Driscoll. Job impact is unknown.

AI-drafted from 3 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

Paramount completed its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on 7 October, and the merged company now operates under the name Skydance. The first announcement left games out. A staff memo from Skydance president Andy Gordon, first reported by Variety and covered by GamesIndustry.biz, filled the gap: Paramount Games Studio and Warner Bros. Games become one Games and Experiences division.

Who is in it

On the Warner side that means the internal studios Avalanche Software, NetherRealm Studios, Rocksteady, TT Games, WB Montreal and WB Boston, according to Game Developer. Between them they made Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat 1, Suicide Squad and Gotham Knights. Paramount Games Studio was only set up this summer, combining Paramount's licences with Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media. Its head of games Dan Prigg told GamesIndustry.biz that before the merger Paramount "was just licensing" and did no internal development.

Tony Driscoll, who ran Paramount Games Studio and has held executive roles at Epic Games, Warner Bros., AT&T and Disney, leads the new division and also takes charge of corporate strategy and development. In his own memo, quoted by Shacknews, he puts theme parks, resorts and studio tours in the same breath as games, "from 'Batman' to 'SpongeBob'", and says his first priority is to meet as many staff as he can.

What has not been said

Nobody has explained what the merger means for individual studios or projects. Skydance chief executive David Ellison told staff the integration "will require difficult decisions" and said: "There will be changes, and there will be impacts. I'm not going to pretend otherwise." Warner's studios have already been through cuts and closures in recent years.

The new company's board also includes former Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick, alongside Laurene Powell Jobs, with former UK prime minister Tony Blair as an adviser. Ellison's announcement praises Kotick's record of "building enduring franchises". Game Developer points out that his time at Activision ended in 2023 amid a California lawsuit over the company's workplace culture, which Activision settled without admitting wrongdoing.

Sources

• Paramount Games Studio and WB Games merge under Skydance following completion of $111bn acquisition (GamesIndustry.biz)
• Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick named to the board of post-merger Skydance (Game Developer)
• Skydance merges WB Games and Paramount Games Studio (Shacknews)

Image: Image: GamesIndustry.biz