Variety is reporting that Paramount Pictures is getting into the videogame business. Recently expanding its interactive department, Paramount has yet to announce any titles but has put together a slate of games that it will either partially or fully finance. The games will either be based on new film titles or part of their library of films.

Studio is looking to invest in all types of videogames but is particularly interested in casual, handheld and mobile games, as they can be made for only a few million dollars, compared with the $20 million or more it costs to produce a title for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

Paramount will continue to license some of its titles to other videogame publishers for now, but this definitely marks a new era for the studio. Warner Bros. is the only other studio with a videogame publishing department; all others have focused on licensing agreements. Paramount says some of the their titles under the new publishing dept. will be released later this year.