During today’s Warner Bros. Discovery Q3 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav commented on the company’s gaming and film divisions, and how they’ll be expected to “deliver more consistency” with their releases. It has been a tough year for Warner Bros. Discovery, as several of its high-profile releases–including Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, MultiVersus, and Joker: Folie à Deux–have drastically underperformed.
Zaslav said that the company’s games business is currently “underperforming its potential” and that inconsistency remains an issue in its various divisions (via The Verge). Zaslav added that Warner Bros. Games revenue declined 31% between July and September when compared to the previous year, as Mortal Kombat 1 launched during that window in 2023. MultiVersus in particular has led to a big shortfall for Warner Bros. Games.
Warner Bros Doubles Down On Live Service Games | Spot On
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“We took another $100 million plus impairment due to the underperforming releases, primarily MultiVersus this quarter, bringing total writedown year-to-date to over $300 million in our games business, a key factor in this year’s studio profit decline,” chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said (via IGN).
These results come on the back of a successful 2023 for the Warner Bros. Discovery game division, as Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game in the US last year, and sold more than 30 million copies globally. Warner Bros. Games is now making a sequel that could connect to the upcoming Harry Potter TV series and a Hogwarts Legacy Definitive Edition featuring additional story content is reportedly also in development.
Zaslav also mentioned last year that the company would double down on live-service games, despite the single-player Hogwarts Legacy being a best-seller for the company. In comparison, the live-service Suicide Squad game was “disappointing” for Warner Bros. Games after it launched earlier this year and it had a $200 million impact on the company’s bottom line.
Recently, Zaslav also spoke about licensing out its IP to third-party studios. “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,” Zaslav said in August.