Paramount acquires game maker ScreenLife
Paramount Pictures announced on Tuesday that it acquired ScreenLife, the maker of the popular DVD game Scene It, in a move designed to boost the studio's profile in DVD, online, and mobile gaming.
Viacom-owned Paramount declined to disclose the purchase price for Seattle-based ScreenLife. Since launching in 2002, ScreenLife has sold more than 15 million copies of Scene It, a trivia-game that requires players to identify film clips. The company has over 25 DVD game titles on the market.
"The acquisition of ScreenLife advances Paramount Digital Entertainment's multi-platform strategy," said Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Digital Entertainment. ScreenLife "will enable us to create new digital content that is interactive, entertaining, and easily accessible to audiences."
Video games are becoming more attractive to film and music companies. It's common now for movie franchises such as The Godfather, Star Wars and Harry Potter to be offer a video game based on the film. Nowadays, action films often offer a game to give fans a way to interact with a flick.
Music-based video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which is also owned by Viacom, have created a whole new way for fans to interact with recorded music.
News of the acquisition was first reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET.
