Publishers have been eyeing the live service space for as long as it’s been around, and even though there’s been no shortage of examples of single player titles enjoying widespread critical and commercial acclaim even in recent memory, major players in the industry continue to make efforts to expand their live service efforts.
The latest company to join that list is WB Games. In a recent quarterly earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed that going forward, WB Games intends to place a greater emphasis on live service games rather than single player titles, with the company’s goal being to “drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels.”
“Our focus is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms,” Zaslav said (transcription via Seeking Alpha). “Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels. We have put specific capabilities. We are currently under scale and see significant opportunity to generate greater post purchase revenue.
While it remains to be seen what WB Games’ future output will look like as it looks to expand its live service efforts, the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League certainly looks like it will fit the live service mold- assuming, of course, that it sees the kind of success the publisher will be hoping it will, of which there are no guarantees.
Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat 1, which launched in September, will also continue to receive content over the coming months, with its first DLC character set to arrive on November 16.
