Yesterday, we reported on the news that Warner Bros. Discovery may eventually sell off its game developers in an effort to plug financial woes over the last couple of years. We mentioned there that this was judged as a last-resort to be used if investors don’t give the production giant time to right the ship, and seemingly this is still very much the stance as WBD clearly doesn’t want to leave the valuable and games sector.
In a recent financial call (as reported on by IGN), WBD’s president of global streaming and games JB Perrette and CEO David Zaslav talked about how they intend to use gaming to generate revenue.
Perrette mentions: “We look at the evolution of the storytelling in interactive entertainment as a space and say it’s one of the unique areas in media that is growing, both growing in terms of time spent, growing in terms of engagement, and growing in terms of revenue. And so we still see this as a huge opportunity for us.
“We know that our franchises, particularly in a world where the gaming industry-launching brand new franchises is getting harder and harder for a number of reasons, including IDFA deprecation and more challenges with marketing and customer acquisition And that franchises like the ones that we have are in high demand, and can help in launching games.
“You still need a great game, and the reality is, we’ve had the unfortunate- in a short period of 12 months, we went from having the record year in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to unfortunately having the opposite side of that spectrum with Suicide Squad. And it is still hit-driven nature of some of that business, but one of the areas we are particularly leaning into, which is about half of the $200 billion games business, is the free-to-play space.”
Zaslav then followed up by adding: “One of the strategic advantages of owning all our IP is, as the world has changed, it used to be you launch a movie or you launch a TV series, then you do a game. But one of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and the #1 game last year, you went to Hogwarts Legacy and you entered the game and you were able to become part of that world. That ultimately I think is a big piece of where this industry is going.
“That we’ll create a movie, whether it’s Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and maybe there’ll be a TV show, but the ability to go in that world and have that experience of spending time with all the characters is something that we still own.
“We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP. And there’s also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we’re looking at. Because as JB said, we need to get bigger, and the IP that we own and the value that it has in the gaming space is something we’re looking to take advantage of.”
So it seems like we could eventually see a world where Game of Thrones, DC, Harry Potter, and other major franchises include games made by developers not owned by WBD. If that’s the case, who would you like to see take a crack at some of this promising IP?