In a move that signals a dramatic shift in how one of Hollywood’s oldest giants approaches interactive entertainment, Paramount has officially unveiled Paramount Games Studio, a new unified division built from the merger of Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media. The announcement, first confirmed through Variety and reported by Insider Gaming, arrives with perfect timing: the studio’s first AAA game reveal is set to debut tonight during Summer Game Fest 2026.
This is not a cautious restructuring. It’s a declaration of intent.
Paramount is no longer treating games as a side business, a licensing arm, or a brand extension. As newly appointed studio president Tony Discroll put it, this launch represents “a meaningful evolution in how we think about games — not as an extension of our business, but as a core pillar of our content strategy alongside film, television, and streaming.”
It’s a rare moment of clarity from a major entertainment conglomerate: games are not the future of the business — they are the business.
And Paramount is reorganizing its assets accordingly.
A New Studio Built From Two Distinct Legacies
The creation of Paramount Games Studio is more than a rebrand. It’s the fusion of two very different but complementary teams that have spent the last decade carving out their own identities under the Skydance umbrella.
Skydance Interactive — The Technical Powerhouse
Founded in 2016, Skydance Interactive quickly became known for its technical ambition and its willingness to push into emerging platforms. Its breakout success came with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, a VR title that stunned critics with its physics-driven combat, survival systems, and narrative depth.
At a time when VR was still treated as a novelty, Skydance Interactive proved it could deliver full-scale, high-quality experiences that rivaled traditional console games.
The studio built a reputation for engineering excellence — the kind of team that could take a risky idea, a new technology, or a complex system and make it sing. That DNA now becomes part of Paramount’s foundation.
Skydance New Media — The Narrative Vanguard
If Interactive was the technical arm, Skydance New Media was the storytelling soul.
Led by industry legend Amy Hennig, best known for her work on Uncharted, the studio was formed with a clear mission: create blockbuster, narrative-driven action games with the emotional weight and cinematic flair of prestige television.
Under Hennig’s leadership, the studio secured two major projects:
- An untitled Star Wars action-adventure game, still in active development
- Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, a story-driven title set during World War II
Both projects remain unchanged and continue under the new Paramount Games Studio banner.
However, the restructuring did bring one notable leadership shift: Julian Beak, formerly co-president of Skydance New Media, has departed the company. Hennig remains in place as creative director, ensuring continuity for the studio’s narrative vision.
The New Leadership Structure
Paramount Games Studio will be led by:
- Tony Discroll, President
- Dan Prigg, Executive Vice President and Head of Games
- Shawn Kittelsen, Senior Vice President, Head of Creative & Production
All three bring deep experience from Skydance’s gaming operations, ensuring the new division is not a corporate experiment but a continuation of proven leadership.
Discroll’s statement makes the strategy unmistakable: Paramount wants to build games that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its biggest film and TV franchises — and it wants to create new worlds that can live across all mediums.
This is the same playbook that has turned gaming divisions at Sony, Microsoft, and even Netflix into core pillars of their entertainment ecosystems. Paramount is now stepping onto that same field.
What Happens to the Existing Games?
Despite the merger, Paramount has confirmed that development on both major Skydance New Media projects continues without interruption:
- The Star Wars project remains in production
- Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is still moving forward
This continuity is crucial. These are high-profile, high-expectation titles — the kind that can define a studio’s reputation for years. Paramount clearly understands that and is keeping the creative teams intact.
The First Reveal Arrives Tonight
The timing of this announcement is no coincidence. Paramount Games Studio will make its public debut tonight during Summer Game Fest 2026, where the company will unveil its first AAA title under the new banner.
Whether this reveal is tied to an existing Paramount IP or an entirely new world remains unknown. But the message is unmistakable: Paramount is stepping into the arena with something big enough to justify a primetime reveal.
A Broader Corporate Shift in Motion
The formation of Paramount Games Studio also arrives amid a larger corporate transformation. As reported, Paramount+ and HBO Max are expected to merge into a single streaming service if the Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is approved.
This would create one of the largest entertainment ecosystems in the world — and games would sit at the center of it.
Paramount is not just building a game studio. It’s building a cross-media empire where games, films, and streaming content feed into each other.
A New Era for Paramount — And a New Player in AAA Gaming
For decades, Paramount has been a film-first company. But today marks a turning point. With the creation of Paramount Games Studio, the company is signaling that it intends to compete at the highest level of interactive entertainment — not through licensing deals, not through outsourced projects, but through internal, unified, AAA development.
Skydance Interactive brings the technical muscle.
Skydance New Media brings the narrative pedigree.
Paramount brings the IP library, the distribution power, and the ambition.
Tonight, we see the first result of that union.
And it may be the moment Paramount officially enters the gaming big leagues.
