Warner Bros. Discovery intends to leverage its mental properties and publish extra video video games based mostly on its greatest franchises, the corporate mentioned at its second-quarter earnings name on Wednesday. Along with creating video games in-house, Warner Bros. can be seeking to license its IPs out to different studios. Warner Bros.’ Hogwarts Legacy, based mostly on the Wizarding World IP owned by the corporate, was the best-selling sport of 2023, however few WB properties have been utilised to their fullest potential within the video games medium.
Throughout the Q&A bit of Warner Bros. Discovery Q2 2024 earnings call (as first reported by IGN), CEO David Zaslav mentioned there was “lots of curiosity” amongst outdoors events to show Warner Bros. IPs into video video games. “We’ve got 11 studios right here, and now we have lots of IP,” Zaslav mentioned through the name. “And there is additionally lots of curiosity amongst others in coming to make the most of a few of that IP for gaming, which we’re ,” he added.
JB Perette, CEO and president of worldwide streaming and video games, additionally mentioned that Warner Bros. franchises have been in “excessive demand” and will assist launch new video games. The manager additionally recognized the free-to-play section in gaming as a spotlight space for the corporate that has seen blended outcomes with its triple-A primary-party titles.
Final 12 months, Hogwarts Legacy, based mostly on the favored Harry Potter franchise, sold over 22 million copies, changing into the most important sport of 2023. In 2024, nevertheless, Warner Bros. Video games launched Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which turned out to be a vital and industrial failure, resulting in a 41 percent drop in Warner Bros.’ gaming income within the second quarter of 2024.
“You continue to want an awesome sport, and the fact is… in a brief interval of 12 months, we went from having the file 12 months in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to sadly having the other aspect of that spectrum with Suicide Squad,” Perette mentioned through the earnings name.
Zaslav and Perette have been responding to a query on the “uneven efficiency” of WB’s video games over the past couple of years, the “strategic worth” of video video games for the conglomerate and whether or not it considered video games as a core a part of its large portfolio.
Whereas Warner Bros. Games, a part of the conglomerate’s World Streaming and Interactive Leisure unit, has printed video games based mostly on fashionable Warner Bros. franchises like Batman and Harry Potter, various massive properties like Sport of Thrones and Superman stay underutilised in the case of the interactive medium.
Based on Zaslav, the corporate wants to vary that and maximise the potential of its IPs as video video games. “… we have to get larger, and the IP that we personal and the worth that it has within the gaming house is one thing we’re seeking to make the most of,” he mentioned responding to the question.
At its third-quarter earnings name in November 2023, Warner Bros. had said that it might remodel its greatest franchises into reside service video games, with a give attention to prolonged the life cycles of its releases. “Finally we wish to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at greater ranges,” Zaslav had mentioned on the time. “We’re at the moment beneath scale and see vital alternative to generate better post-purchase income.”
WB positioned its greatest guess on the reside service mannequin earlier this 12 months when it launched Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, with deliberate post-launch content material drops. The sport, nevertheless, confronted criticism over its reside service mannequin and underwhelming gross sales resulted in Warner Bros. taking a $200 million loss on the title. In our personal review, we felt the sport was crippled by its choice to maneuver away from Rocksteady’s experience in single-player narrative-focussed titles.
In March this 12 months, nevertheless, Warner Bros. reiterated its commitment to the reside service mannequin of video games regardless of the sub-par vital and industrial efficiency of Suicide Squad.
