Paramount has completed its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, with both companies now operating under the name Skydance.
Skydance’s announcement does not reference video games. However, co-CEO Ynon Kreiz addressed the segment’s role in a separate statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“We will have plenty of opportunities to develop new businesses, products, games and experiences to engage fans wherever they are and be where the consumer is going,” said Kreiz.
Addressing staff, Skydance CEO David Ellison stated that the merger would require making “difficult decisions.”
“Bringing together two companies of this size and complexity will require difficult decisions. There will be changes, and there will be impacts. I’m not going to pretend otherwise,” said Ellison.
“What I can promise you is that we will move through those decisions as quickly and thoughtfully as we can. We will communicate directly. We will tell you what we know when we know it. And we will not allow a prolonged integration process to distract us from the reason we brought these companies together in the first place: which is to build the next-generation media and entertainment company.”
Skydance is targeting more than $6 billion in “synergy savings”, which it said will “come primarily from technology, integration and procurement, marketing and real estate rationalisation.”
Earlier this summer, Skydance launched Paramount Game Studio by merging Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media.
GamesIndustry.biz caught up with EVP Dan Prigg about the studio’s goals and upcoming projects from Platinum and Amy Hennig, such as 1943: Rise of Hydra and a new Star Wars title with Lucasfilm.
With the merger complete, Skydance now owns Warner’s intellectual property, including Avalanche Software (Hogwarts Legacy) and its publishing label Portkey Games, NetherRealm (Mortal Kombat), Rocksteady (Arkham), and TT Games (Lego). The acquisition also includes studios such as WB Games Montreal, WB Games New York, and WB Games San Francisco.
You can read our full timeline of the Warner Bros acquisition process here.