Lionsgate Invests in Videogame Publisher Telltale Games as Company Expands Beyond Films, TV

As it looks to expand beyond its core business of making movies and television shows, Lionsgate has invested in Telltale Games, the developer of games based on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

Lionsgate declined to disclose the size of the investment other than to say it was “significant.” The figure is said to be around $40 million, according to sources familiar with the deal, Variety has learned.

The move by Lionsgate is certainly a significant one, and gives the company behind “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” franchises, a major stake in a well-respected and successful gamemaker after having only just formed a games group in April 2014, under the leadership of Peter Levin, a digital entrepreneur who had sold Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist Industries to Legendary Entertainment.

Since then, he’s moved Lionsgate primarily into the mobile games space, and scored with titles based on “Hunger Games” and “John Wick.”

But with Telltale, Lionsgate’s backing will enable the company to develop new games, and work with Lionsgate to co-develop titles that can be turned into movies and TV shows.

As part of the deal, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer will join Telltale’s board of directors.