Paramount Pictures said this year it will be expanding its interactive department to publish video games, focusing in particular on casual, handheld and mobile games, according to a report in Variety. The studio, which created a new global business unit in February, is now saying it will make a multi-million investment to create games, too. Various games will take different paths, whether they are published in house, co-published or licensed to other game developers.

The Viacom (NYSE: VIA) studio will be tapping the expertise of two industry executives: Matt Candler will be VP of interactive development, in charge of developer relations for games the studio is funding and will also help package film properties into games. He comes from Grind Games, Seven Studios, Six Studios and Activision (NSDQ: ATVI). Luke Letizia will be exec director of interactive licensing, watching over projects that are licensed to other publishers. They’ll work with Sandi Isaacs, Paramount’s SVP of interactive and mobile, and Harry Lang, VP of interactive and mobile production.

The article said that Paramount’s move to getting more involved in making the video games, is a trend towards ensuring quality as well as moving faster without having to wait for a publisher to become interested. It said Warner Bros. is the only other studio publishing games. Issacs said: “We are entering into deals now where we will be publishing games this year.”

• Updated: Paramount Pictures Creates New Mobile Entertainment Unit; Interview: Sandi Isaacs