League of Legends’ Animation Director Joins Bungie for Destiny Universe Transmedia
League of Legends animated shorts creator Derick Tsai has officially joined Bungie. The gaming community is not new to developers leaving one studio for another. However, it is not common for devs to let the public know what they were specifically hired to do.
Following his tenure at Riot Games, the former League of Legends animation director is the new Head of Development for Destiny Universe Transmedia. His LinkedIn page reveals that his new position will have him “leading projects and telling stories that extend the Destiny IP into new mediums including Film, TV, Animation, Books, Comics, and Audio formats.”
It has been speculated that Tsai’s new role is part of Bungie’s stronger venture into non-games media. Tsai appears to be the right person to make a Destiny movie or TV series happen. Just like with what is happening with the Uncharted franchise, Tsai can do the same for Destiny.
This ties in with Sony’s planned $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie. By acquiring the studio, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said they become more able to “considerably accelerate” the company’s multiplatform plans.
Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki has revealed that Destiny devs are working on a “major new IP.” He stated that the company is planning to harness Bungie’s experience in the live service going forward. Totoki also brought up multimedia ventures like Sony Pictures as it is ready to adapt properties for the big screen.
“It is not just for the gaming area but the multi-using of IP and merchandising of IP, like a game title maybe put into movies,” Totoki said. “Bungie can leverage our platform so that their IP can flourish and grow big.”
“Bungie wants to nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner and that is their hope,” he added. “For that, we believe we can help with that.”
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