Fans of the horror game genre are unable to hide their excitement following the launch of a video game division by Blumhouse. The heavyweight horror movie and TV production company on Tuesday 21 February 2023, announced the unveiling of the Blumhouse Games division.
“For a long time, we have been looking to build out a team to start accessing the growth opportunity in interactive media,” said Abhijay Prakash, President of Blumhouse. “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.”
Blumhouse is the production company behind some of the scariest horror movie titles like M3GAN, Halloween, US, and Paranormal Activity. The new division will work with indie game developers and target projects with a budget under $10 million.
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Blumhouse uses a similar strategy in its filmed content production. The company has a tradition of working with small production budgets. Eventually, they make huge profits at the box office. Since coming into the movie industry in 2000, the company has revolutionized the horror genre.
They have a knack for turning slim-budget movies into successful box-office blockbusters. For example, Paranormal Activity released in 2009 was produced with a budget of $15,000. However, it went ahead to make over $200 million around the globe.
Blumhouse plans to put money into horror-themed games for mobile devices, PCs, and consoles. Zach Woods, a veteran in the video game industry was offered the position of the Blumhouse Games president while Don Sechler was tapped for the financial officer.
Blumhouse Games’ team has decades of industry experience
Woods has over 25 years of experience as a video game producer. His games have been published on Xbox, PlayStation, and Game Boy. He has also been a prominent figure in indie projects like Hohokum and Sound Shapes. However, he has also been featured in big projects like Redfall for Bethesda and Arkane.
“Through my time in the industry, I’ve had the good fortune of working closely with developers to bring their ideas to life,” said Woods. “There’s a unique opportunity for the horror 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.”
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Sechler, on the other hand, has worked for Sony and was instrumental in the reformation of the relationship between third-party game creators and PlayStation. Sechler was also instrumental with “business development deals for the development, marketing, and distribution of games ranging from the largest independent publishers in video games to first-time developers.”
Also, Blumhouse is working towards a merger with Atomic Monster production company by James Wan, the director of The Conjuring.
Blumhouse is working on Five Nights at Freddy’s
With the success of the movie adaptation of The Last of Us, gamers can have a reason to be optimistic that Blumhouse’s movie adaptation of the Five Nights at Freddy’s will not be a disappointment like most other movie adaptations of video games.
The movie adaptation of the video game series started filming in early February 2023 in New Orleans. Originally, Warner Bros. was believed to handle the adaptation and it was supposed to be directed by Gil Kenan who doubles as the co-screenwriter with Tyler Burton Smith.
Eventually, the project moved to Blumhouse and Chris Columbus was put in charge of directing for many years. However, Emma Tammi, the director of Into the Dark: Blood Moon, will now be in charge of the production. She will be working with a screenplay she wrote in collaboration with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo) and Scott Cawthon, the video game creator.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s video game was set in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese. The animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs during the day and by night they go on a killing spree. The gamer is tasked with surviving at night while locked inside with furry death machines that can jump out of the dark at any time.
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