Warner Bros Video games has introduced a brand new restructuring, six months after the departure of its president David Hadded, because it continues to re-orient itself round 4 franchises. The brand new construction will see WB Video games break up into three divisions based mostly on what the corporate considers its 4 most vital gaming properties: Harry Potter, Sport of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC (however primarily Batman).
This has been the path of journey for WB Video games for a while now, and appears prompted by a few high-profile failures particularly. Probably the most distinguished is Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad, a stay service title that flopped and apparently value WB Video games an eye-watering $200 million. The opposite is Multiversus, a reasonably respectable preventing recreation that included many WB properties, however didn’t catch on and, after one try at a relaunch, the corporate mentioned “that is all people” at the beginning of this 12 months.
Notable in each instances is that these have been riffing on extra esoteric WB properties: in Suicide Squad you play a solid of comparatively minor DC villains, whereas Multiversus was constructed round characters just like the Iron Large, Steven Universe and *checks notes* Banana Guard. So it very a lot looks as if one of many classes WB Video games has taken is to now construct video games round solely its very largest manufacturers, and tentpole releases like Hogwarts Legacy.
In November 2024, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav was specific about this, saying the writer can be narrowing its focus to DC (“particularly Batman”), Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, and Sport of Thrones.
“We’re by way of a few of the worst—and it hasn’t been fairly on the gaming enterprise—however we’ve 4 video games which are actually highly effective,” mentioned Zaslav. “We’ll go away from attempting to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 totally different video games. I believe we’ve an actual likelihood now with focus to have the gaming enterprise be steadier.”
By way of the company office-shuffling, three present studio heads have been promoted (first reported by Selection). WB Video games Montréal studio head Yves Lachance is promoted to senior vp, growth, in command of Harry Potter and Sport of Thrones. NetherRealm studio head Shaun Himmerick can be now senior vp, growth, and in command of Mortal Kombat and DC video games. Lastly, WB Video games New York studio chief Steven Flenory is senior vp, central tech & companies, in command of expertise, QA, and viewers analysis. All report on to JB Perrette, Warner Bros Discovery’s CEO of worldwide streaming and video games.
For as soon as within the video games business, this restructuring would not include a slew of layoffs. It is unclear whether or not WB Video games continues to be searching for a substitute for former chief Haddad, or whether or not this new construction is how issues are gonna be.
“Our firm is dwelling to a few of the largest franchises on this planet, and we’re optimizing our staff construction to develop long-term franchise roadmaps to thrill gamers and followers of Harry Potter, Sport of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC video games,” mentioned Perrette.
The WB Video games restructuring takes place as mother or father firm Warner Bros Discovery prepares to separate into two firms: WBD Streaming & Studios, led by CEO David Zaslav, and WBD World Networks, led by CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. WB Video games will probably be part of the Streaming and Studios division.
As for what we will anticipate to see from WB Video games in future, there’ll inevitably be a Hogwarts Legacy sequel (it was the best-selling recreation of 2023 by a distance), Mortal Kombat will seemingly roll on as ever, and I totally anticipate Rocksteady is within the early phases of a brand new Batman recreation (in any other case, why preserve it open after Suicide Squad). As for Sport of Thrones, there’s an RTS later this 12 months, although I am holding out hope for a third-person Westeros with the Nemesis system. Hell, simply something with the Nemesis system would do.
