Undeterred by the poor critical and commercial performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Warner Bros. Games plans to lean further into a live-streaming service model for its games in the future. JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and gaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, laid out the company’s gaming strategy at a recent Morgan Stanley speaking event, reiterating the studio’s intention to increase its focus on games-as-a-service, free-to-play Investment in games. -plays games and mobile games, and is skeptical of the “unstable” business of customizing AAA games on consoles.
Perrette reiterated Warner Bros.’s sentiments while speaking at Morgan Stanley’s recent Technology Media and Telecommunications Conference. Promising to turn its biggest franchise into a live-service game and proposing a strategic shift away from triple-A publishing.
“The challenge for us is that historically our business has been based on triple-A consoles. When you have a hit like Harry Potter (Hogwarts Legacy), that’s is a great business and it makes the year look great. And then we’re also disappointed when you don’t have a release, or unfortunately – we just released Suicide Squad this quarter, but It’s not performing that strongly — it just makes it very volatile,” the executive said.
Perrette said Warner Bros.’ existing franchises such as “Mortal Kombat,” “Game of Thrones,” “Harry Potter” and “DC” provide the studio with opportunities to expand its offerings into consoles. opportunities outside. “We believe there is an opportunity to leverage these four franchises and develop a more comprehensive approach, particularly in expanding into the mobile and multi-platform free-to-play space, that can generate better and more stable revenue for us,” He said. The executive confirmed that WB Games will launch several free-to-play mobile games later this year.
Despite the huge success of last year’s Hogwarts Legacy, WB Games seemed less confident about a AAA console release due to its long development cycle and high development costs. On the other hand, the studio believes that a live service model can provide ongoing engagement and generate revenue more consistently. Perrette said Warner Bros. will look to expand its existing games around a live service model, and suggested a Hogwarts Legacy sequel might be able to offer the same service. “Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a live service around games like Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter that people can continue to live, work, build and Play. Does the world go on?” he said.
Warner Bros. announced its strategy to expand into live-streaming services during its earnings call in November. WB CEO David Zaslav has said the company plans to turn its biggest video game franchise into a long-term product. “Ultimately, we want to drive longer cycles and higher levels of engagement and monetization,” Zaslav said at the time.
The studio also doesn’t seem fazed by the failure of its latest triple-A game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which took on the format of a live-action robbery shooter. The game reportedly released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X last month, but didn’t live up to Warner Bros.’s expectations. As of this writing, the third-person shooter has 208 online players on Steam, with its all-time high of just over 13,000 players. In our 6/10 review of the game, we said Killing the Justice League was severely hampered by its live service model, with “confusing design choices, a mundane mission structure, and an unclear identity” detrimental to the game’s Advantage.
The games-as-a-service model also appears to have reached saturation point, with several games competing to keep players engaged. While popular games like Fortnite and Call of Duty are doing well, newer games have struggled to successfully fit into the mold. High-grossing live-service games also appear to be falling out of favor with gamers themselves.
Hogwarts Legacy, a single-player console version without microtransactions or live service elements, became last year’s best-selling game, selling more than 22 million copies.