While Hogwarts Legacy has beena huge hitfor Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the same can’t be said for some of the company’s other video game offerings. At the start of 2024, WB releasedSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League– a game that was in development for nearly a decade – that flopped horribly both commercially and critically. It bombed so hard that Warner Bros.' gaming revenuedeclined by over 40% because of it.
If that doesn’t paint a bleak enough picture, Warner Bros. doesn’t even have a game releasing soon that could help the gaming division’s bleeding. So, what does the company plan to do?
Warner Bros To Focus on Four Key Properties For Video Games
It’s because of bombs like Suicide Squad that Warner Bros. has decided to pull back on developing a lot of games at once and, instead, will focus on four properties moving forward. The company revealed this during its quarterly earnings call (viaIGN). Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said they plan to reduce the number of video games the company releases and, instead, will focus on gaming properties: Hogwarts Legacy, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC “in particular Batman.”
Zaslav mentioned, “We’re through some of the worst — and it hasn’t been pretty on the gaming business — but we have four games that are really powerful and have a real constituency that love them, and we’re going to focus on those four primarily.” Zaslav adds that they are reducing game releases significantly stating,“We’re going to go away from trying to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 different games. I think we have a real chance now with focus to have the gaming business be steadier."
The exec is also banking on having proven studios to develop these franchises, “We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans: Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC in particular Batman. We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio.”
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Avalanche Software developed Hogwarts Legacy, and we’re assuming therecently-confirmed sequelwill be developed by the studio once again. Mortal Kombat is, of course, NetherRealm Studios' baby, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The big question mark here is: does Warner Bros. upper brass trust Rocksteady Studios to develop more Batman games after the debacle that was Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? We don’t know for sure, but based on Zaslav’s comments, a new Batman game seems to be gestating somewhere in one of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s studios.
While it’s a shame Warner Bros. seems to be trimming down its gaming releases, and pushing for new gaming properties will be impacted, I can’t say I blame them. Let’s hope that the next few gaming releases will bring that revenue up so we won’t see more companies closing and more developers out of jobs.
Hogwarts Legacy
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