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Lionsgate invests in Telltale Games to create a TV show / video game hybrid

Lionsgate invests in Telltale Games to create a TV show / video game hybrid

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The studio behind The Walking Dead is finally creating an original series

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Telltale Games — the studio behind series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones — is finally working on an original series. But this time it will be more than just a video game.

While details on the new, original series are still under wraps, it will be what Telltale has dubbed a "super show": a sort of half game, half TV show hybrid. One episode will include both a scripted TV-style portion, as well as an interactive section in line with Telltale's previous work. "It's not an interactive series with a show, or a TV show with a game, but a story integrated in a way that only Telltale can do," CEO Kevin Bruner told Entertainment Weekly. "For us it's a very natural evolution of the interactive storytelling expertise we've pioneered."

"For us it's a very natural evolution of the interactive storytelling expertise we've pioneered."

To go along with the reveal, Telltale also announced that film company Lionsgate has made "a significant investment" in the games studio, and that Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer will join Telltale's board of directors. "Their leadership in narrative-driven episodic games, together with our investment and the potential opportunities created by our premium content expertise, will continue to strengthen their ability to offer exciting new avenues of storytelling to their next generation audiences across a broad range of platforms," Feltheimer said in a press release. It could also potentially lead to Telltale games based on Lionsgate properties, such as Orange is the New Black or The Hunger Games.

Telltale's games already closely resemble TV shows, using an episodic structure that sees games divided into chunks, with new episodes released roughly once a month. The new Super Show will follow a release timeline somewhere in between a typical weekly TV show and a Telltale game, according to Bruner. And while the game studio is well known for creating series based on licensed properties, which will soon include Minecraft, this venture marks a new foray into original content. While details on the project are non-existent, Bruner says that the project is being developed in collaboration with "a world-class creative partner."

"Together we've created a world where we can really demonstrate the power of this new format and leverage the toolkit it brings to us as storytellers," he told EW, "much like we've done in the [game-only] space."