It Appears WB Games Will Be Split Up As AT&T Merges WarnerMedia With Discovery - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 June 2021 / 2,118 Views
AT&T announced today it will spin off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery in a $43 billion deal. The new company will oversee CNN, HBO, TNT and TBS, Discovery's Food Network, HGTV, and others.
On the gaming side, it is being reported that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is being impacted in a big way. A spokesperson told Axios writer Sara Fischer that the Warner Bros. gaming division is being split up as some developers will take with AT&T and others will join the new company.
"Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company," said the representative.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has 11 studios. This includes Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm Studios and Batman Arkham series and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League developer Rocksteady Studios. Also part of WBIE is LEGO games developer TT Games, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and War developer Monolith Productions, Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software, and more.
At this time it isn't known who will remain with AT&T and who will be joining the new company.
WB Games is getting broken up somehow due to AT&T's WarnerMedia-Discovery sale/merger. "Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company," rep tells Axios' @sarafischer. No further info. WB Games lists 11 studios, games for all kinds of IP, devices
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) May 17, 2021
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Jesus Christ this whole AT&T/Warner clusterfuck is such a nightmare. So many brands and services opening, closing, and changing hands constantly. Can they just pick a direction and stick with it already?
I hope all of the studios survive this mess. Considering the impending clusterfuck, it may be simpler for the higher ups to close down some of the smaller dev teams.
Not that I have a crystal ball, but I doubt it (EDIT: re: "simpler" prediction) ...If AT&T or the Warner/Discovery media side didn't want a given studio, they would have transferred it to the other party. I would guess that Warner/Discovery is keeping assets related to it's other media assets, while studios/IP not related to Warner film/TV assets are being retained by AT&T for now. The whole operation is basically an asset sale for AT&T, so why wouldn't they just sell the remaining assets Warner/Discovery didn't want?
Keeping game studios related to film/TV IP makes more sense for media entity (since otherwise the 2 companies are financially tied which defeats purpose of asset sale), but after deal is closed AT&T can move to sell the non-film/TV-related gaming assets... possibly individually or as group (but much smaller group than WarnerGames as a whole, and without the high price associated with film/TV brands). Techland (Dying Light), Arrowhead (Helldivers), and Turtle Rock (Back 4 Blood) seem main non-TV/film related assets. I guess it will be interesting to see if some IP will be separated from studios which developed them.
My take on this from my normal position of having no real knowledge is after reading the tea leaves that when AT&T made the decision to keep the gaming business it's restructure was inevitable the only difference is now rather than a restructure focused on the game business in its present form , it will now occur as a byproduct of the merger process and I expect that those studios that don't fit into either side of the business will have little hope beyond being sold or closed.
interesting, as there had some rumor for they selling out gaming division and then the rumor of it being cancelled.
Looking at the games and studios, I can say that I have appreciated a lot of their games. Hope that whatever is their future they still keep making great games.
the rumor was true they were, but realised that it wasn't a good value proposition especially with the number of games being licenced product lessening the value to potential buyers.
I think being true doesn't negate something being a rumor, and if the story was reported beyond or preceding explicit official announcements of company, then it was a rumor.
Anyhow, yeah the licenced aspect is chain on the neck of value of gaming assets, which is why I think the new Warner-Discovery media company will take the film/tv related gaming assets along with film/TV assets themselves, leaving AT&T with much smaller non-film/TV related gaming assets that aren't encumbered by licence, which it will likely be selling off. Techland/Arrowhead/TurtleRock could be solid acquisition as group or be sold off invidually to any number of potential buyers.
Point taken ,so I have edited it to begin with the rumor was true
Yep the licenced games point makes a lot of sense. Perhaps they would need to offer a contract to allow the use of the licenses for X many years for Y price for the purchaser or sell the studio based only on the buildings and talents over there (which doesn't make it much valueable... just look at Insomniac, since Sony owned the relevant IPs they paid only 275M on the studio, versus MS paying 2.5B on Mohjang that was basically only the IP actually).
Even thought you're right it's not a great comparison , Minecraft was a rare phenomenon up there with games like tetris, it ticked all the boxes , it sold like hotcakes was on everything , cheap to produce , could be easily further monetized and because it could be built upon it alleviated the risk all Sequels potentially face of not living up to it's predecessor.
Now Insomniac are a rare breed in that the Studio was bought on it's talent and track record and not IP, let's face it Spider Man's success was the tipping point where Insomniacs value for Sony reached the point that the money offered overcame Ted Prices reluctance to sell so when you look at it using that criteria you will see that it sits up right up there.
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note* when we talk Insomniac and IP we need to not fall totally into the belief that they are now and forever just Sony's Spider Man / R&C studio .
We should never forget that the original games they made weren't given to them just the financing that allowed them to create those IP with games starting with Disruptor then Spyro, R&C , Resistance , Fuse and Sunset Overdrive we see a history of not only new game but importantly game series IP that even with some misses among them , is still a strong enough history to see Insomniac being a real asset when it comes to further adding to the the creation of quality new original IP that are essential to help grow upon and provide vital refreshment to the existing first party games that currently underpin Sony's exclusives.
Hey man I agree with you. And that is why I said they would buy property and talent/track record instead of the IPs itself. That just mean they will pay a price according to that, and it may not be that high (and may not be what the seller want for it).
And also about Insomniac I also agree that it isn't only R&C or S-M... Resistance well I don't think Sony will go back to it, Spyro is not theirs, Fuse from what I remember flopped and SO didn't do to well. But there are likely other IPs we forgot to mention, and yes they certainly would be able to create great new IPs I have no doubt.
But let's say that anyone else that wasn't Sony to buy Insomniac would have to do it basically being IPless (like some of these studios from WB probably would be, reason why I said they could see a lot better offer if the also swetten the deal wit X amount of years license for "free" meaning already in the price of the studio and only royalties per sales made instead of a fixed price per game).
my comment was toward using mojang as a comparison point the other part was the fact that Spiderman is the main reason the offer overcame Ted Prices reluctance the other reason was Insomniacs failure to create owned IP that sold in large enough numbers to offer long term regular cash flow the perpetual problem of Independent studios,the of noted with a asterisk was general talk about their future not their purchase itself , and when I listed the games i mentioned that it included some flops but was a demonstration of their historical capacity to make original IP the hardest thing a game studio can do its not making a hit game or even a franchise it is making different hit franchises.
This is a freakin mess. Glad I sold out of my ATT stock. They’re one of the most mismanaged companies I’ve seen.
A bit like the telecom equivalent of Pfizer. Pfizer has spent more on acquisitions than the company is actually worth.
Sony should buy TT Games. They're awesome.
That would be a good studio, Rocksteady, Netherrealm and some others as well.
Nah this is flustercluck of epic proportions hahahaha
Don't worry, AT&T can charge it's telcom/internet customers to make up for losing money on WB.
Essay Pro