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Activision Blizzard, maker of the Call of Duty video game, announced it will make original films and TV series.

The newly formed Activision Blizzard Studios will base the shows and movies on the company's games.

It plans to release a TV series based on Skylanders Academy in 2016 and films based of the military videogame Call of Duty starting in 2018 or 2019.

The firm made the announcement during its annual fan convention called BlizzCon.

Nick van Dyk co-president of Activision Blizzard Studios said the studio would deliver the "action that fans expect from this franchise".

"We'll have a fraction of the overhead of the typical studio since we're starting with a blank page and building an organization that is right-sized for our intended creative output and for the future of the industry," he said.

Branching out

Activision already had plans to release a film based on its game franchise Warcraft in 2016 through a partnership with Legendary Pictures.

It is a further effort by the company to expand beyond games for games consoles.

On Monday Activision announced plans to buy mobile phone game maker King Digital Entertainment, the creator of Candy Crush.

That deal is valued at $5.9bn (£3.9bn).