Lionsgate, the Vancouver-based movie and television studio behind The Hunger Games, Mad Men, and Divergent, have announced their plans to expand into the video game business. Lionsgate’s new hire, Nerdist co-founder and former CEO Peter Levin, has become the president of Interactive Ventures and Games for the company, “including incubation of new properties, investment in existing games and digital media vehicles and leveraging Lionsgate’s franchises and other branded properties into the gaming space.” He will report to Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer and CFO Jimmy Barge for digital investments.
Lionsgate’s expansion is not the only one to expand from movie studios into game development. For example, Warner Bros. has been successful with its Batman: Arkham series and Lego game titles. Though other studios like Disney Interactive have struggled in the game development, being that they cut 700 employees this past March, but has seen some success with Disney Infinity, especially now with the expansion that has new a Marvel title.
“Mr. Levin will be responsible for expanding Lionsgate’s content creation into video games and other interactive ventures, including incubation of new properties, investment in existing games and digital media vehicles and leveraging Lionsgate’s franchises and other branded properties into the gaming space,” the company stated.
Peter Levin will be a perfect fit for their entrepreneurial culture, not only because of being a co-founder and former CEO of Nerdist, but also with previous roles that include being the executive advisor at the Japanese media company Yoshimoto Kogyo and having served in other roles like the graphic novel distributor comiXology, Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment, and The Walt Disney Company.
“Gaming has become one of the most explosive growth areas of the content business, and Peter’s mandate will be to build a portfolio of premium digital properties as we expand our leadership in films and television programming into digital content as well,” said Lionsgate’s Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer.