In a recent update, David Zaslav from Warner Bros. Discovery shared some thoughts during the company’s earnings call, pointing out the need for more reliable output in gaming and films. It’s been a challenging time, with big titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, MultiVersus, and Joker: Folie à Deux not doing as well as hoped.
Zaslav expressed that their gaming department isn’t living up to what it could be, struggling with consistency across its parts. The revenue from Warner Bros. Games dipped by 31% between July and September compared to last year, even though Mortal Kombat 1 hit the market during this period. MultiVersus, in particular, turned out to be a major letdown.
YouTube link: https://www.gamespot.com/videos/warner-bros-doubles-down-on-live-service-games-spot-on/2300-6463612/
“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,” explained Gunnar Wiedenfels, the chief financial officer.
Interestingly, despite these setbacks, Hogwarts Legacy turned out to be a massive hit in 2023, becoming the top-selling game in the US and selling over 30 million copies worldwide. Now, Warner Bros. is working on a sequel, which might link to a new Harry Potter TV show, and there’s talk of a Hogwarts Legacy Definitive Edition with extra story content.
Although Hogwarts Legacy did great as a single-player game, Zaslav had previously announced a focus on live-service games. Yet, the Suicide Squad game didn’t meet expectations and had a $200 million hit on the company’s finances.
In August, Zaslav also mentioned the idea of letting other studios use their intellectual property. “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,” he said. Sometimes, fans just want a good story to dive into.
