WB Games has started the break up... How far will it go?

[DaivRules]

Hoeg Law (a law firm out of Michigan that covers a lot of topics and really enjoys covering video game topics) has a video with a brief about what has happened and speculation about what's going to happen.

 

AT&T, after acquiring WB Games in their Warner Media takeover, mentioned they'll be restructuring and hinted they were already planning on spinning off some assets.

 

AT&T has sold Playdemic (maker of Golf Clash and subsidiary of TT Games) to EA for $1.4 billion in cash.

 

The comment from David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Games that really leaves the door wide open: “While we have great respect for the Playdemic team, our decision to divest is a part of our overall strategy to build games based on Warner Bros. storied franchises.”

 

That could be interpreted as everything left is pretty well defined by "WB storied franchises" (Harry Potter, DC characters, etc), but who's to say how narrowly they define that or whether this is just a bunch of fluff text used as an example to boot Playdemic and accept a briefcase full of cash.

 

Are WB Games best kept under the AT&T umbrella or better off being sold to other game companies? What is the next WB Games property you think AT&T is going to unload?

 

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by DaivRules

[sepheroithisgod]

Wonder what this means for the Lego franchise. Hope they continue making them.

[POEman553]

5 minutes ago, sepheroithisgod said:

Wonder what this means for the Lego franchise. Hope they continue making them.

 

LEGO games sell fairly well (LEGO Dimensions notwithstanding). I imagine it'll be a separate LEGO Games entity with Traveler's Tales still developing them.

 

It makes me wonder if Skywalker Saga will even come out in 2022 or 2023, much less this year though.

 

I imagine the Batman games will be in a Discovery Games umbrella (Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad, Rocksteady's rumored Superman game) since DC is owned by Discovery Channel now.

 

Hogwarts Legacy may be iffy as well with its release.

[pavelbagirov]

What will be with Mortal Kombat? It’s already 2 years since MK11 and new game not was announced yet. They broke the cycle.

[MAUSZX]

My bet is that they are thinking into giving away their license to use their franchise to other companies, that way they keep winning and don't spend much money, similar to what Disney is doing in the Videogame department.

[scemopagliaccioh]

Well fuck, i was just hoping Netherealm would give us Injustice 3,  to be fair, though, they’ve been toying with the idea of selling the WB Games division for a year or so, I’m not exactly sure who would buy said division, I can only think of EA, as their marketing strategy is very similar and it would give them people obsessed with Assassin’s Creed in the form of the Batman and Middle Earth games, so that they can push a new action adventure, possibly without relying on licenses now that Mirror’s Edge is dead.

But I would really be interested in Netherealm   themselves, if I was at EA, outside of my bias, they are hardened in the fighting game scene, and basically unrivalled  on the West regarding fighting games, there’s tons of stuff they could do with them, much more than what they tried with Battlefield and SW  BF2 

Skins, DLCs packs, expansions, pre-ordee bonus, server renting for online, virtual currency to buy stuff they already have them, fighting players, especially veterans, are also more okay with this type of shit, than say, a fanboy wanting to use Vader immediately.

Huh, it’s crazy how many licensed IP WB has now that I think about it, and I don’t even wanna go see the headache of the Lego games and all the famous franchises they require to stay afloat, sorta like TellTale, yeah, selling some stuff off would be foe the better, I don’t think they’re any different from say,  EA anyway.