| J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Launches Video Game Division J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot banner has expanded into the gaming space. Company president and COO Brian Weinstein announced Thursday that the entertainment production company has entered a strategic relationship with Tencent, the Chinese media giant, to form Bad Robot Games. The partnership will exclusively develop games by Abrams and Bad Robot, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment joining the gaming arm as a minority investor. Bad Robot Games will partner with established developers to create large-scale and indie titles for the mobile, PC and console markets. In-house visual artists, designers and writers from Bad Robot will work on the projects. Dave Baronoff, who has led Bad Robot’s games and interactive content creation since 2006, will head up the game division. Baronoff has worked on branded titles spun off from popular Bad Robot franchises such as Cloverfield as well as the current co-development project Spyjinx with Epic Games, ChAIR and Tencent. “I’m a massive games fan, and increasingly envious of the amazing tools developers get to work with, and the worlds they get to play in. Now we are doubling down on our commitment to the space with a unique co-development approach to game making that allows us to focus on what we do best, and hopefully be a meaningful multiplier to our developer partners,” said Abrams. “Dave’s creativity, deep passion and skillful leadership will be incredibly valuable as we harness our partner Tencent’s expertise, experience and reach to bring our games to audiences around the world.” Alongside Baronoff, Tim Keenan, who created the 2016 indie PC and mobile game Duskers, will serve as creative director. Tencent, whose Tencent Games is the largest gaming company in the world by revenue and market value, will have the commercial rights to distribute all Bad Robot games released in Asia.
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