UPDATED 17:13 EDT / NOVEMBER 06 2015

NEWS

Activision Blizzard forms its own TV and film studio

Game publishing giant Activision Blizzard Inc has announced that it is forming its own television and film production company, which will be called Activision Blizzard Studios.

In a press release, Activision Blizzard highlighted its numerous high value IPs that could be translated onto the big or small screen, including Call of DutySkylandersDiabloHearthstone, and StarCraft. Conspicuously absent from the list is Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft franchise, likely because the rights for Warcraft film adaptations currently rest with Legendary Pictures, which is producing a Warcraft film for Summer 2016.

Activision Blizzard announced that one of the new studio’s first adaptations will be an animated television series called Skylanders Academy, which will be based on the popular Skylander toys-to-life game series. The publisher said that it also plans to create “a robust cinematic universe based on the Call of Duty franchise” within the near future.

“Activision Blizzard is home to some of the most successful entertainment franchises in history, across any medium. With the launch of Activision Blizzard Studios, our engaged fans can now watch the games they love come to life across film and television,” Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said in a statement. “Activision Blizzard Studios is yet another way we’re celebrating our players and fans, and we expect that our film and television productions will entertain and delight whole new audiences, as well. I’m excited that Nick and his team will be leading this important new growth opportunity for Activision Blizzard.”

He added, “We intend to approach film and television development with the same unwavering commitment to excellence we are known for in game development.”

Former Walt Disney Company senior executive Nick van Dyk will serve as the new studio’s co-president along with a yet to be announced senior creative executive.

“Activision Blizzard Studios has the unique advantage of starting with a library of world-class intellectual property that includes some of the largest franchises which have not yet been developed in film and television,” van Dyk said. “Our library spans more than 30 years of global entertainment culture and, in the last 12 months alone, fans of Activision Blizzard properties have played and watched our games online for more than 13 billion hours. This gives us a huge, passionate and deeply-engaged audience that is hungry for more great content built from the universes they already know and love—and which are extremely broad in their appeal.”

Image courtesy of Activision Publishing Inc

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