Why Get Out and The Purge movie studio Blumhouse has started making video games
- With its first game, Fear the Spotlight, out this autumn, Blumhouse is the latest in a list of studios targeting the giant gaming industry
Over the past 15 years, Blumhouse’s low-cost, original indie horror films have seen it build a reputation for success. Now the studio best known for such movies as the Paranormal Activity franchise and M3gan is looking to do the same in video games.
The Los Angeles-based film and TV production company recently announced its first slate of games, starting with an homage to 1990s teen horror films called Fear the Spotlight, a third-person, puzzle-solving adventure that is expected to come out in autumn on desktop and consoles.
The studio had identified an especially relevant opportunity: not only was the games industry growing, particularly among young people, but Blumhouse’s own fans frequently identified as gamers, says Abhijay Prakash, the studio’s president.
“I don’t think you can be in the entertainment space and not notice or be aware of gaming,” Prakash says. “The market is growing globally and diversifying its audience, it’s super relevant to the audience we’re already in touch with, and there was a business opportunity for us to do what we did in movies and apply it to games.”
Blumhouse is the latest studio entrant to the massive video game market. Annapurna, an indie firm founded by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison’s daughter Megan, has a gaming division, as do brother David Ellison’s Skydance Media and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot. The gaming unit at Warner Bros. Discovery has long churned out big franchise titles, including 2023’s Harry Potter-themed hit, Hogwarts Legacy.