Viacom-owned Paramount has taken its first tentative step into game development, buying Screen Life, developer and license holder of the Scene It? games. Scene It?: Lights, Camera, Action appears on the Xbox 360 as the console's answer to PlayStation's Buzz!; it was developed in conjunction with WXP and published by Microsoft.

The deal was done for an undisclosed sum, although it has been suggested that it was for less than $100 million (€69.5 million). Screenlife will continue to operate as an independent company, reporting to Paramount.

The Paramount deal is unlikely to prove problematic for Microsoft in getting the Scene It? franchise onto its platform, given that the publisher already has ties to Paramount by way of Xbox Live Marketplace offerings.

Still, this does mark a step into gaming by Paramount - albeit a tiny one - and could be the sign of things to come. Its parent company, Viacom, already has an interest in gaming in the form of MTV Games. Similarly, other film companies such as Warner Bros and Disney have been ramping up their gaming presence of late.

^{Source: Washingtonpost.com}