2024 has been a disastrous year for WB Games, having started out with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League failing so spectacularly that it cost the company $200 million, while MultiVersus has also ended up underperforming, contributing to an additional $100 million writedown on top of that. Unsurprisingly, following those major stumbles, WB Games is now looking to buckle up and refocus on a handful of core franchises that it hopes will enjoy greater success going forward.
Caught by IGN, during the company’s recent quarterly earnings call, Warner Bros. Discover CEO David Zaslav acknowledged the aforementioned stumbles, before stating that the company intends to reduce its output going forward, while also zeroing in on four “really powerful” franchises with significant fanbases in Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC- Batman in particular, as per Zaslav.
“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 love 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.”
With Batman: Arkham developer Rocksteady Studios having been behind Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Zaslav singling out Batman and mentioning “proven studios” is certainly interesting, especially amidst reports that Rocksteady is looking to revert to single-player games, and that the studio has started working on new Batman game.
Meanwhile, it was recently officially confirmed that a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is in development, while previous reports have claimed that a Hogwarts Legacy Definitive Edition is also in the works, and due out sometime in 2025 with 10-15 hours of new content.