Steam may be more or less equivalent to PC gaming these days, but that hasn’t stopped major AAA publishers from pitching their own alternative storefronts on the platform- EA has tried hard to push Origin, Blizzard has Battle.net, and Ubisoft has the widely detested Uplay. Now, it seems another AAA publisher may be about to join the fray, as recently unearthed were trademarks for WB Play, which seems to hint at some kind of storefront for Warner Bros.’ games.
The trademark application specifically refers to “online retail store services”, “audio and video broadcasting services”, “entertainment service” and “downloadable virtual goods,” which to me is a pretty good indication of just what this may be. Of course, it is entirely possible that this is not a new storefront, but a planned subscription service by Warner Bros. in the vein of EA Access.
Nothing can be certain until we have an announcement one way or the other, but for my part, I really hope this is nothing but a trademark filing. The last thing I want is for all major publishers to make their games exclusive to their services.