Star Wars, Westworld Studio Is Getting Into Gaming

Bad Robot, the film and TV production company led by Star Wars director JJ Abrams, is getting into gaming in a bigger way. The company has opened a video game division called Bad Robot Games.

Chinese internet giant Tencent is investing money into the studio, while Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is also involved, but only as a "synergistic minority investor." Bad Robot did not disclose the terms of the agreement, though the company did say Tencent gets the rights to distribute all of Bad Robot's games in Asia.

It sounds like Bad Robot Games may not make games itself, at least not completely or in every situation. In a press release, the studio said it will "team up" with "traditional game developers" to work on big and small games for console, PC, and mobile.

Abrams said in a statement that he is pretty stoked to launch Bad Robot Games. "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," he said. "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."

Bad Robot has already done some work in the video game space, as it collaborated with Valve in 2015 for Team Fortress 2's Pass Time mode. Additionally, Bad Robot continues to work on Epic's Spyjinx, though we have not heard much about this project in a very long time.

Some of Bad Robot's film and TV endeavours have included a handful of projects that Abrams has directed or been heavily involved with, including the 2009 Star Trek reboot, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and the hit TV shows Lost and Westworld.