Warner Bros. Games

Warner Bros. Games is a developer and publisher.

Warner Bros. Games Webpage, Facebook

An American company founded in 2004 and owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate since 2021. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment releases its games under the Warner Bros. Games (WB Games) label, and titles bearing its logo can be found on every major platform.

The history of Warner Bros. Games

The beginning of the video game market

In January 2004, Warner Bros. announced its entry into the video game market. At that time, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment appeared on the industry map, along with Warner Bros. Games, the brand under which WBIE would publish its titles. The role of senior vice president was filled by Jason Hall, a co-founder of Monolith Productions, a studio later purchased by Warner Bros. In 2005, WBIE was transferred to the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment division.

Warner Bros. Games' first fully self-published title was Justice League Heroes, released in 2006. One year later, the company announced ambitious plans to deepen its presence in the video game market, effectively launching an expansion offensive.

Expansion

The first outcome of this strategy was the acquisition of the British studio TT Games for L100 million. In 2008, the company began investing in Eidos, and in 2009 it launched its first big success, LEGO Batman: The Videogame. Also in that year, the company obtained the film rights to the Tomb Raider franchise from Paramount Pictures. Soon after, Warner Bros. Games brought several studios into its fold, including Snowblind Studios, the former Midway Chicago studio, and Surreal Software, along with key IPs like Joust, Mortal Kombat, The Suffering, Wheelman, and Spy Hunter.

Rocksteady Studios, a British developer, became part of WB Games in 2010. The company also established a new development studio, WB Games Montreal, focused on producing games based on DC Comics properties. Soon after, the company acquired Turbine Entertainment, later rebranding it as WB Games Boston. In the same year, Surreal Software was merged into Monolith Productions, and two years later, Snowblind Studios experienced a similar merger. The year 2011 brought the release of two critically acclaimed titles: Mortal Kombat and Batman: Arkham City.

In 2013, another studio joined Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's roster - WB Games San Francisco - while in 2014, Monolith Productions released its take on The Lord of the Rings universe with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

In January 2017, WBIE acquired Avalanche Software, which Disney Interactive Studios had recently shut down; John Blackburn resumed leadership following the studio's revival. The company would only find out in 2023 whether this venture was a success… but let's not get ahead of ourselves. In February, TT Games, part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, acquired Playdemic, which would subsequently focus on creating LEGO games for mobile platforms. The Portkey Games brand was created in 2017 to release games based on the Harry Potter universe. In the same year, WBIE acquired Agora Games, renaming it WB Games New York. In 2019, WB Games San Diego was established, adding another studio to the company's roster.

The new owner

In mid-2020, reports emerged that AT&T, the parent company of Warner Bros. (more precisely, WarnerMedia), planned to sell the entire WBIE division. While the rumors were quickly refuted, May 2021 brought news that the company would be taken over by the Discovery Group. The only "victim" of the entire venture was Playdemic, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2021.

Hogwarts Legacy, an action role-playing game set in the Harry Potter universe, launched in 2023. Not only was the game Avalanche Software's greatest achievement to date, but it also enjoyed widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. Mortal Kombat 1 followed shortly after.

The issues of Suicide Squad

February 2024 saw the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. WB Games hoped this game would be a hit, but it ended up being a disappointment. Back in February, Warner Bros. Discovery's CFO, Gunnar Wiedenfels, stated that the game "didn’t meet expectations" and in May, he described it as a "disappointment".

Given that the latest game-service released by Warner Bros. didn't break the bank (unlike the single-player-focused Hogwarts Legacy project), the declaration by JB Perrette, the company's gaming chief, may have come as a surprise. In March, he stated that the company needs more games of this type, as well as additional mobile and free-to-play titles.

In the months that followed, WB Games launched MultiVersus (May 2024) and Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions (September 2024). In July 2024, Warner Bros. Games announced it had acquired Player First Games, the studio behind the former title. Additionally, in the same month, the SAG-AFTRA union launched a strike that targeted, among others, Warner Bros. Games. Among its key demands, the union sought protections against the unauthorized use of AI to imitate actors' voices or generate digital "incarnations".

A shift in strategy

After losing more than $300 million in 2024, WB Games decided to completely change its publishing strategy. In early November 2024, during an investor briefing, David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, revealed that the publisher's focus would be on four core franchises: Hogwarts Legacy, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC, especially Batman. He confirmed that the projects were already in the hands of "proven studios". It meant abandoning efforts to release 10, 12, 15, or even 20 different games.

All of this led to a change at the very top. David Haddad, who had led Warner Bros. Games for 12 years, announced his resignation as president in January 2025. He planned to remain with the company for a further three months. No successor was named at the time of the announcement. A Bloomberg report published in February revealed that the underperformance of Warner Bros. Games' releases had resulted in a $300 million loss.

The publisher's hopes, however, were pinned on Rocksteady Studios' upcoming project, reportedly a new single-player game in the Batman universe. Work on Wonder Woman, which was announced in December 2021, was said to be progressing at full speed. Bloomberg revealed that Monolith Productions' title was undergoing a significant reset, would see a director replacement, and was expected to cost upwards of $100 million.

Ultimately, the reports were proven false. On February 25th, the company officially announced the cancellation of the Wonder Woman project and the closure of Monolith Productions. Two other Warner Bros. Games studios, Player First Games and WB Games San Diego, faced a similar fate.