Last month, there were murmurs that AT&T, the parent company of WB Games, was looking to sell off all the assets related to the gaming division. It was somewhat of a shock, though a lot of the details about this potential purchase are still in the air. Now, though, we do have a few names in the mix for who could be interested.
As reported by The Information, there are four names that are currently floating around for potential buyers. Three of these are familiar names from the previous report: Take-Two Interactive, EA, and Activision. The fourth name is a new one, however, and particularly interesting, since it’s platform holder Microsoft.
There are no other details here, so there’s a lot that remains unclear. The biggest sticking point is that WB Games largely publishes and develops games from IPs owned or licensed by TimeWarner. Clearly, those IPs would not be part of this sale, but considering the asking price is allegedly $4 billion dollars, it would have to have some kind of sweetheart deal in regards to licensing.
WB is set to unveil some new games at the DC Fandome event in August (reportedly new Batman and Suicide Squad games), so the timing of these alleged talks is pretty interesting. While WB Games was pretty active in the later parts of last gen and the beginning of this one, their output has slowed in recent years significantly.
Whether this all is related or not is unclear, and it’s worth mentioning that nothing has been officially announced or talked about from any of these parties as of yet- so don’t take any of this as anything but very early pointers in preliminary discussions. For now, at any rate..