First they're going all Blu-ray on us, and now they want in on a piece of the gaming industry.  Motion picture film studio Paramount Pictures confirms it will expand its games and interactive department to take a bigger part in the funding and design of licensed software titles.  Paramount will initially persue casual, handheld and mobile game development and publishing.

Investing in games development could allow Paramount to more quickly leverage its motion picture franchises for licensed game titles without always tapping into third party companies to do so.    Fellow Viacom company MTV Networks is already making a name for itself by similiarly branching out into video games, though this is currently thanks to its partnership with EA and Harmonix over Rock Band.  Warner Bros. is currently the other major Hollywood film studio which had positioned itself to take advantage of its licenses through in-house game development.