Blumhouse, The Company Behind M3GAN, Is Launching Their Own Horror Video Game Division
Blumhouse, the studio that brought you horror hits like "M3GAN," "The Purge," "Split," and many others, is officially getting into the video game business. Announced via a press release today, the multimedia company is launching a new subsidiary with the explicit purpose of producing and publishing video games. The new division's name? Rather appropriately, Blumhouse Games.
Zach Wood, a veteran of the gaming industry with more than 30 years of experience, will serve as President of Blumhouse Games and Don Sechler, who headed finance, operations, and strategy for Sony PlayStation's publisher and developer relations function, will serve as CFO. The company will partner with independent game developers and the aim is "to bring their creative vision to life via original, horror-themed games for console, PC and mobile audiences." Very interestingly, the company will target indie-budget games (that is, games costing less than $10 million to make) to enable innovation and push creative boundaries.
Similarly, Jason Blum's movie studio has made more than $5 billion at the box office by producing movies for, generally speaking, $10 million or less and giving filmmakers lots of creative freedom. This is how we got Jordan Peele's "Get Out" or Scott Derrickson's "Sinister." Imagine what that model could do for games? Abhijay Prakash, Blumhouse President, had this to say in a statement:
"For some time we have been looking to build out a team to start accessing the growth opportunity in interactive media. When we sat with Zach and Don they articulated an approach that resonated with Blumhouse's model and we knew it was a perfect place for us to start our push into the interactive space. With their experience, sensibility and knowledge of the gaming marketplace Zach and Don are the ideal leaders to leverage Blumhouse's unique genre strengths into gaming."
An ever-growing horror empire
This is a very logical move for an array of reasons. First and foremost, the video game industry generated just shy of $185 billion in revenue last year (with a big ol' B), which absolutely dwarfs the movie industry. And good things can happen when an indie game catches on. Just look at what came of "Five Nights at Freddy's," which started as a humble indie game and became a huge multimedia franchise. Perhaps not coincidentally, Blumhouse is currently making a movie based on that game. It all comes around. Zach Wood had this to say in a statement of his own:
"Through my time in the industry, I've had the good fortune of working closely with developers to bring their ideas to life. There's a unique opportunity for horror and genre in the indie game space, and I'm thrilled about teaming up with Blumhouse to meaningfully leverage the company's brand, reputation, and creative talent."
Another thing to consider is that Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster announced plans to merge at the end of last year, and that deal is expected to close in the next few months. Having a video games division will provide the combined might of Jason Blum and James Wan, the man who brought us "Saw," "Insidious," and "The Conjuring" universe, even more room to play. No projects have officially been announced yet but we would expect Blumhouse Games to hit the ground running. Stay tuned.