Among those affected by these lay-offs are Gotham Knights level designer Camille Olivier Paquette, lead scriptwriter on Gotham Knights and associate narrative director on Wonder Woman Ceri Young, and associate producer Nicolas Pereira-Poisson.

“Today was my last day at Warner Brother Games Montreal and I am now looking for an opportunity to continue my career as Level Designer in the industry,” wrote Paquette in a LinkedIn post over the weekend. On around the same day, Young also announced her departure through a post. “Hey all! As of today I’m looking for a new role in the games industry,” she wrote.

While Pereira-Poisson hasn’t outright made any posts announcing his departure from the company, a quick look at his LinkedIn profile reveals that his tenure at WB Games Montreal as a full-time associate producer came to an end this month. Before this, he had worked on the ill-fated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as well as three unannounced games.

While neither Warner Bros. Discovery, nor Paramount Skydance have made any statement regarding these lay-offs, Motive Studio’s experience design director Eric Bellefeuille too to LinkedIn to write his own.

“Layoffs are never easy, and my thoughts go out to the incredibly talented developers affected by the recent changes at Warner Bros. Games Montréal and Electronic Arts,” he wrote. “To anyone impacted, if you need support, introductions, or simply someone to help you expand your network, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Our industry is built on collaboration and community, and I’d be more than happy to help however I can.”

“You’re not alone in this moment. There are many of us who value the skills, creativity, and passion you bring to game development. Let’s stay connected.”

Netflix was originally going to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at around $82.7 billion as of December 2025. However, Paramount Skydance offered its own deal, valued at $111 billion. This led to Netflix walking away from its initial deal and referring to Paramount’s offer as being a “superior proposal”. Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters went on to note that countering Paramount’s offer made the deal no longer “financially attractive.”

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” said the CEOs in a statement. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

In another statement, Sarandos would go on to note that Netflix pulled back from the deal because “We definitely wanted this asset. We didn’t need it.” He went on to refer to Warner Bros. Discovery as a company that would have been nice for Netflix to have bought. Despite this, however, things are looking up for Netflix, with the $2.8 billion it got from Paramount Skydance as part of the deal’s breakup fee is being reinvested into the streaming giant.

“It’ll be fascinating to see the next steps. I have been on the record a lot in the last two weeks talking about what I think the future looks like,” he continued. “I’m confident in our future that we’re not impacted by all that. In fact, maybe it’s to our advantage. But I hope I’m wrong for the sake of the industry.”

Warner Bros. Discovery presented “an incredibly unique opportunity” for Netflix, according to Sarandos. “We definitely wanted this asset. We didn’t need it.” As for the future, the company doesn’t seem to have any other acquisitions planned. Rather, the $2.8 billion it got from Paramount Skydance as part of the breakup fee will be reinvested in Netflix. “We are builders, not buyers,” he said. “All that is still true.”

Sarandos’ statement echoes the one he made alongside co-CEO Greg Peters when Netflix announced that it was pulling out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. In a statement, they described the company as a “nice to have” if the price were right, and not a “must have at any price.”

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

As for Paramount Skydance, its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery is valued at around $111 billion, with WBD shares valued at around $31 each in cash. As part of this deal, Paramount will own the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its film properties and studios, its linear cable networks, and even studios under the Warner Bros. Games umbrella.

Back when Netflix was still part of the deal, the company had not mentioned Warner Bros. Games in its announcements. Peters had noted that, while he was impressed with the games released by the division, it was “relatively minor” in the grand scheme of things. Despite this, however, he had noted excitement at getting to work with some of the properties built by WB Games, citing Hogwarts Legacy as “a great example”. He went on to note that, “They’ve got great studios and great folks working there. So we believe that there’s definitely an opportunity there. But just to be clear, we haven’t built that into our deal model.”

In the meantime, Paramount Skydance hasn’t yet made any statements about its plans with Warner Bros. Games. However, considering the amount of debt taken on by the company for this acquisition (around $78 billion), layoffs across Warner Bros. Discovery may occur over time.

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” said the CEOs in a statement. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

Despite its pull back from the deal, Netflix went on to praise Warner Bros. Discovery’s leadership—namely David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer, and the company’s board for its “fair and rigorous process”. The streaming giant went on to note that the acquisition was considered a “nice to have” if the price were right, and not a “‘must have’ at any price”.

Moving forward, Netflix has confirmed plans to invest around $20 billion in films and shows to expand its streaming offerings. It will also resume its share repurchase program.

The original deal that Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery had agreed upon for the acquisition was valued at around $82.7 billion, with equity valued at $72 billion being part of the process. Rather than acquiring the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, however, Netflix was prioritizing its film and television studios, along with the HBO Max and HBO IPs.

Interestingly, the deal had made no mention of the various game studios part of Warner Bros. Discovery. Peters had said back in December that the gaming companies weren’t mentioned due to them being a “relatively minor” part of the deal in the grand scheme of things. Despite this, however, he also noted excitement to work with WB Games, saying that there is “definitely an opportunity there.”

“And maybe worth going back again to sort of how we thought about the deal and building our valuation model, while they definitely have been doing some great work in the game space, we actually didn’t attribute any value to that from the get-go because they’re relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things,” said Peters. “Now we are super excited because some of those properties that they’ve built, Hogwarts Legacy is a great example of that, have been done quite well, and we think that we can incorporate that into what we’re offering. They’ve got great studios and great folks working there. So we believe that there’s definitely an opportunity there. But just to be clear, we haven’t built that into our deal model.”

For its part, Paramount Skydance has agreed to cover the $2.8 billion breakup fee to get Warner Bros. Discovery out of its deal with Netflix. The overall deal proposed by the company is valued at a around $111 billion, with WBD shares being valued at around $31 each in cash. The deal involves the entirety of the company, while Netflix had no plans to buy its linear cable networks.

“2025 was a year of reset”, he said, believing that the gaming division got “distracted going after too many IPs with too broad a set of studios.” While this year marks the release of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight and Game of Thrones: Dragonfire (which is already playable in select regions), Perrette claims “The real fruits will start coming in ’27-’28 when we return to some of our biggest franchises.”

Which franchises specifically? Considering the company was restructured last year to focus on Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC, it’s likely one of those four. That Hogwarts Legacy sequel may finally be revealed in the coming months, followed by a launch sometime next year, potentially coinciding with the new HBO show. We haven’t heard much about NetherRealm’s next project, but rumors claim it’s a new title in the Injustice franchise.

Regardless, the company’s live-service multiplayer ambitions may be over, especially after the failure of MultiVersus, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions. Granted, that doesn’t mean it can’t pursue microtransactions in other ways, or that it’s purely single-player-focused (as seen with the cancellation of Wonder Woman).

For now, LEGO Batman fans can look forward to the launch of Legacy of the Dark Knight on May 29th. It’s shaping up pretty well, if this new trailer recreating a scene from 1989’s Batman (complete with Prince’s “Partyman”) is any indication.

While WB Games has done some impressive things, going as far as shouting out Hogwarts Legacy, he believes they are still “relatively minor” in the grand scheme of things. As a result, Netflix didn’t attribute any value to the gaming division. Once the deal is complete, however, Peters noted that Netflix is excited to work with WB Games and that there is “definitely an opportunity there”.

“And maybe worth going back again to sort of how we thought about the deal and building our valuation model, while they definitely have been doing some great work in the game space, we actually didn’t attribute any value to that from the get-go because they’re relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things,” said Peters. “Now we are super excited because some of those properties that they’ve built, Hogwarts Legacy is a great example of that, have been done quite well, and we think that we can incorporate that into what we’re offering. They’ve got great studios and great folks working there. So we believe that there’s definitely an opportunity there. But just to be clear, we haven’t built that into our deal model.”

It is worth noting that there are several studios under the larger Warner Bros. Games umbrella, including heavy hitters like Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm Studios, Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady Games, and Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software. However, it is also no secret that the gaming division has gone through a down period, thanks in large part to the failure of live-service titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus to make any reasonable dent in the market.

These had far-reaching effects on some studios, and a report from back in February indicates that they were part of the reason behind the closure of Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego. The closure of Monolith Productions was especially noteworthy as it also led to the cancellation of the in-development Wonder Woman game.

“This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games,” said the company when the studio’s closure was announced. “We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans, developed by our world-class studios, and getting our games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.”

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, “Our mission has always been to entertain the world. By combining Warner Bros.’ incredible library of shows and movies – from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favorites like Harry Potter and Friends – with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we’ll be able to do that even better. Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling.”

Co-CEO Greg Peters added that the acquisition “will improve our offering and accelerate our business for decades to come.” Praising Warner Bros. for helping to “define entertainment for more than a century,” he noted that, “With our global reach and proven business model, we can introduce a broader audience to the worlds they create—giving our members more options, attracting more fans to our best-in-class streaming service, strengthening the entire entertainment industry and creating more value for shareholders.”

Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav said, “Today’s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world to bring to even more people the entertainment they love to watch the most. For more than a century, Warner Bros. has thrilled audiences, captured the world’s attention, and shaped our culture. By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come.”

Several of Warner Bros.’ properties, from DC Comics to Mortal Kombat and Harry Potter, have ties to video games, so it’s interesting to note how this could affect their respective studios. For its part, Netflix has had mixed success with its foray into games – aside from layoffs, it also split from Cozy Grove and Spirit Crossing developer Spry Fox.

In his statement, Totoki said that acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t seem likely to lead to major gains in profitability for Sony right now. Rather, he noted that the global market is ripe for growth for more anime productions. With this, he said that Sony is more focused on “growth markets” along with focusing on “cooperative relationships that foster original works.”

“We have no desire for big [mergers and acquisitions] deals in the US film industry right now,” said Totoki. “Simply adding together the current movie studios doesn’t strike me as leading to a big gain in profitability. [Sony Pictures Entertainment] isn’t a big platform company for which scale is everything, so it can create its own position even without becoming one of the top players.”

“The global market for anime is just dawning right now and will continue to grow by double digits for a while. We are focused on growth markets… It’s important to have cooperative relationships that foster original works.”

When it had made its announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav had noted that the decision was made to allow the company to survive in what he referred to as “today’s evolving media landscape.”

“We took the bold step of preparing to separate the Company into two distinct, leading media companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, because we strongly believed this was the best path forward,” he continued.

“It’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market,” he said. “After receiving interest from multiple parties, we have initiated a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to identify the best path forward to unlock the full value of our assets.”

While the announcement largely focused on the film and TV side of Warner Bros. Discovery, it is also worth noting that any acquisition that happens as part of this will also have a major impact on the various game development studios under the company’s banner. These include studios like Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady Studios, Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software, and Mortal Kombat and Injustice developer NetherRealm Studios.

As part of its announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery had also noted that “there can be no assurance that this process will result in the Company pursuing a transaction or other outcome.” No other announcements about this review of strategic alternatives is currently planned to come out of the company. And as is the case with any major company, quite a few of the decisions about this will come down to approval from the shareholders as well as the board of directors.

President and CEO David Zaslav said in the announcement that this decision was made in order to allow the company to “succeed in today’s evolving media landscape by advancing our strategic initiatives, returning our studios to industry leadership, and scaling HBO Max globally.”

“We took the bold step of preparing to separate the Company into two distinct, leading media companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, because we strongly believed this was the best path forward,” he continued, going on to note that there has been “increased recognition by others in the market” in the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio.

“It’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market,” he said. “After receiving interest from multiple parties, we have initiated a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to identify the best path forward to unlock the full value of our assets.”

It is worth noting that, while the announcement largely talks about the various media companies and film and TV production studios under the Warner Bros. Discovery banner, it is also bound to have major effects on the company’s gaming businesses as well. Among the companies owned by the company are Mortal Kombat and Injustice developer NetherRealm Studios, Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software, and Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady Studios.

If Warner Bros. Discovery ends up finding a buyer for its entire business, the gaming side of things will also be part of the transaction. This could ultimately lead to a variety of different things, from lay-offs affecting various developers, to studios even being entirely shut down if the buyer isn’t interested in continuing with video game development in-house.

Currently, Warner Bros. Discovery hasn’t defined a set timetable for the review process of these strategic alternatives. The financial advise for the company is being handled by Allen & Company, J.P. Morgan, and Evercore.

“Other than the separation transaction that is already underway, there can be no assurance that this process will result in the Company pursuing a transaction or other outcome,” said the company in its announcement. “Warner Bros. Discovery does not intend to make any further announcements regarding the review of strategic alternatives unless and until the Board approves a specific transaction or otherwise determines further disclosure is appropriate or necessary.”

While Warner Bros. Discovery might have been facing problems in its film and TV businesses, the company had also reported back in May that revenue from its gaming businesses had fallen as well. Reports at the time indicated that this fall of revenue, measuring at around 48 percent, can be attributed to the commercial failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Yves Lachance has been promoted to senior vice president of development for Warner Bros Games Montreal, where the studio will work on games based on Game of Thrones and Harry Potter. NetherRealm, headed by vice president of development Shaun Himmerick, will continue to work on Mortal Kombat games. Warner Bros. Games New York, on the other hand, will be headed up by Steven Flenory as vice president of central tech and services, as well as central tech and services. The studio will focus on QA, user research, and customer service.

The trio will work directly under Warner Bros Discovery’s CEO of global streaming and games, J.B. Perrette. Internally, teams working on production and tech will report to Lachance and Himmerick. The publishing division at WB Games will continue to be under Perrette.

“Our company is home to some of the biggest franchises in the world, and we are optimizing our team structure to develop long-term franchise roadmaps to delight players and fans of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC games,” Perrette said about the move. “We are very fortunate to have a strong stable of development and technology talent, and Yves, Shaun, and Steven are respected leaders with excellent track records in their areas of expertise. I’m looking forward to working closely with them and the team as we work to make the best games possible for our key franchises.”

Back in March, Warner Bros. had reaffirmed this plans to focus on its big four franchises in a letter to its shareholders. According to the company, it wants WB Games to “refocus our resources and capital on proven IP and games from proven, world-class studios.”

“As we have previously said, 2024 was a disappointing year for our Games business, and we have recently announced a restructuring plan to refocus our resources and capital on proven IP and games from proven, world-class studios,” wrote the company in the letter. “We are focusing our Games business around four tentpole franchises that have each generated over $1 billion in consumer sales in past years: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC – particularly top tier characters like Batman.”

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav had first spoken about this plan to focus on Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC back in November 2024. Talking about the company’s relatively bad year in the gaming market, Zaslav also spoke about how the gaming division at Warner Bros. will bounce back.

“We’re through some of the worst — and it hasn’t been pretty on the gaming business — but we have four games that are really powerful and have a real constituency that loves them, and we’re going to focus on those four primarily,” he said. “We’re going to go away from trying to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 different games. I think we have a real chance now with focus to have the gaming business be steadier.”

“We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans: Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC, in particular Batman. We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio.”

The company describes its games business as “a strategic differentiator” since studios under the WB Games banner can tap into the various IPs owned by the company to make games. It also says that the gaming market is “one of the fastest growing media segments”, thanks to its “over three billion global gamers.”

“As we have previously said, 2024 was a disappointing year for our Games business and we have recently announced a restructuring plan to refocus our resources and capital on proven IP and games from proven, world-class studios,” said the studio in the letter. “We are focusing our Games business around four tentpole franchises that have each generated over $1 billion in consumer sales in past years: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC – particularly top tier characters like Batman.”

Hogwarts Legacy was one of the big video game releases name-dropped in the letter. Thanks to the open-world game’s massive success, Warner Bros. has described it as one of only three of its franchises in the last 15 years to have become one of the year’s best-selling games.

“Just two years ago, our Games team broke through with Hogwarts Legacy and created a completely new gaming franchise that was the best-selling game of the year – a result that only three other franchises in the last 15 years have achieved,” the letter continues.

“That gives us confidence that with our re-focused strategy, we can get back to producing high-quality games built for long-term consumer engagement, which we expect to propel our Games division back to profit in 2025 and emerge as a more significant contributor to growth in the years ahead.”

The letter reiterates what Warner Bros. Discover CEO David Zaslav told shareholders back in November 2024. Acknowledging the company’s stumbles in the gaming business, Zaslav said that studios under the WB Games banner would focus on its four major IPs.

“We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans: Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC, in particular Batman,” said Zaslav. “We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio.”

More recently, in a bid to refocus its efforts, Warner Bros. closed down a trio of studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego. Along with the closure of the studios, the company also cancelled the long-in-development video game adaptation of Wonder Woman.

“This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent within them,” said the studio.

For more on the current state of Warner Bros. Games, here are our thoughts on what has been happening with the company.