After admitting its video games business “is substantially underperforming its potential right now,” Warner Bros. has said it plans to double down on four key titles, namechecking Batman in particular.
2024 has been a brutal year for Warner Bros. Games, with Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s failure sparking a $200 million hit to revenue, and then Smash Bros.-style brawler MultiVersus flopping to the tune of $100 million.
That’s a total writedown of over $300 million in Warner Bros.’ games business so far in 2024, and it doesn’t look like the company has a game coming out any time soon that will reverse the trend.
So, what’s the plan? During a financial call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said that on the games side of things, the company plans to double down on just four titles, and significantly reduce the number of video games it releases in the process.
Those games are Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC “in particular Batman,” Zaslav added.
“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,” he said.
“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.
“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.”
The obvious highlight there is Batman. Controversial live service looter shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s failure was in part due to it not being yet another single-player Batman Arkham game, which developer Rocksteady is best-known for. Warner Bros. Games just released a VR-exclusive Batman Arkham game. Could Rocksteady now be set to return to Batman after Suicide Squad’s struggles?
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that staff at Rocksteady were currently working on a director’s cut of the phenomenally successful Hogwarts Legacy, while leadership pitches a return to single-player following its live service misstep. Could that pitch have involved Batman, and been successful?
It may be some time before we find out. In the shorter term, Warner Bros. has confirmed development on a Hogwarts Legacy sequel and it has a Wonder Woman game in the works at Monolith Productions.
NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 1 released in September last year, and fans are wondering what it’s up to next. In September, NetherRealm development chief Ed Boon confirmed the studio had decided on its next game three years ago, but insisted it was “still fully committed to supporting Mortal Kombat 1 for a long time to come.” Most fans of the studio’s work expect it to release a third game in its DC fighting game franchise, Injustice, although neither NetherRealm nor owner and publisher Warner Bros. has yet to confirm that.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
