The focus of the game division of Warner Bros., WB Games, is to develop games centred on ‘storied franchises’ with its core game studios remaining after the recent Discovery merger.
This clarification on WB Games’ current focus came after the game division sold Golf Clash developer, Playdemic to EA yesterday. Warner Bros. revealed the reason behind the move to sell the mobile developer.
“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.” Warner Bros. said in a press release. “The remaining Warner Bros. Games portfolio is included in the recently announced WarnerMedia-Discovery transaction and will become part of the combined media and entertainment company after the expected close of that transaction.”
It can be articulated that WB Games’ major studios like Rocksteady and Neatherealm are assumed safe. Netherrealm is focused on Mortal Kombat and the DC fighting game series, Injustice, they put out time from time. Rocksteady is in the same boat as they are currently working on Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which was announced by DC Fandome back in August and is slated for next year.
Another WB Games studio is WB Montreal, who played with Rocksteady’s Arkham universe with 2013’s Batman Arkham Origins. It is currently developing Gotham Knights which has been confirmed that it’s not tied to the Arkham universe. It has been rumoured that WB Montreal’s next game could be a new Superman game, which has been talked about for years, unconfirmed of course, but back then Rocksteady was rumoured to be attached to it.
The question of WB Games was put into question after rumours circulated that AT&T was looking to sell the game division for $4 billion. This didn’t end up happening as a press release states that the Warner Bros. game division was kept around as part of the Discovery merger.
It was a good move, while the WB Games studios are all talented, another value of these developers is that they are under the Warner Bros. umbrella, creating games based on Warner Bros. IP. In an alternate timeline where Xbox Games Studios bought the division, without the permission to license the Warner Bros. IP they would have gone into developing something new.
