Warner Bros. Wants to Move Away From 'Volatile' AAA Games and Focus on Live-Service and Mobile - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2024 / 4,597 Views
Warner Bros. Discovery gaming boss J.B. Perrette in a recent Morgan Stanley speaking event discussed it's strategy going forward, which includes moving away from AAA gaming and focusing more on live-service, free-to-play, and mobile games.
"We're doubling down on games as an area where we think there is a lot more growth opportunity that we can tap into with the IP that we have and some of the capabilities we have on the studio where we're uniquely positioned as both a publisher and a developer of games," said Perrette (via GameSpot).
Perrette said AAA games are "volatile" even when they had the best-selling game of 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy selling over 24 million units. He pointed to the lower than expected sales of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
The goal to reduce volatility is to focus on core franchises and release at least some of them to the mobile and free-to-play space, as well as investing in live-service games that people play and spend money on.
"Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?" he said.
Perrette stated Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC are its biggest brands and stated they have 11 different internal game development studios. He said the company has "strategic investment plan" to help make future games more successful.
He expects gaming to bring in "meaningful growth" to the company in the future.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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So ignore the best selling game of the year, and focus on the failed live service game as the way of the company’s future. Genius!
At least they tried something new with Immortals even if it wasn't the best. I'll give Immortals a playthrough eventually just because it's a single player game and not total crap like Suicide Squad.
The game certainly seemed interesting. Something that could have been improved upon with a sequel, but like many AAA games these days. A game doesn't meet expectations, you then layoff the team.
Quality Assurance is also important to a games success. Immortals fundamentally does not feel great as an FPS experience & the magic is very messy/overbearing. If they spent more time getting the feel/look of the combat right (in a sub genre notoriously unsuccessful for this very reason) and sunk less money into expensive cutscenes, actors etc. they probably could of had a successful new IP.
This is something I still think Nintendo leads the way with, gameplay feeling first, everything else as second.
Management at WB is exceptionally poor if they think Mobile is less fickle and volatile than Console.
And to be clear, it is poor management. All of WB is basically failing right now and they are grasping at straws to keep the business afloat
It sounds like buzz word talk.... its a nothing statement, chaseing what others chase. However, the track record they have make it odd. Like they just spent alot on a failed GaaS type game, while the last "one and done" they did, was hugely successfull.
Yes, because AAA status was the problem with Suicide Squad.
I’ve decided I want to move away from the volatile quality of WB Games’ products and focus on better quality titles from other studios.
Their brains are volatile.
Hogwarts legacy brought in over $1 billion in revenue. I doubt suicide squad even brought in $100 million. I don't understand WB's decisions.
There goes any hope for a new Hogwarts Legacy being good.
Well, let me know how that works out for you guys.
No longer wants to work on "volatile" games, so they're gonna start making legit the most volatile types of games there are. Makes sense.
The guy is dumb as shit or a liar. I will assume the latter and he just wants to suck peoples wallets out with predatory practices such mass micro transactions and loot boxes.
Anytime you hear the word "growth" being used in the context of sales, it's probably best to check out. Artists don't use that word. Businessmen do.
Warner bros should just fcken off themselves,
They have gold handed to them in a silver platter and they still refuse.
Absolutely disgraceful.
So instead of doing what they did well.... single player story driven games.... they want to double down on Games as a Service (something they failed at), and free 2 play mobile games? Because thats super easy and always profitabble. Warner Bros top heads failing....
This is what happens when you don't have people who understand games leading the front...
Their volatile AAA games failed because they forced live service/online components onto them instead of being authentic to the franchises (Gotham Knights & Suicide Squad). The ones that succeeded (Hogwarts/Mortal Kombat 1) did the opposite. So they will double down on the components that caused failure lol.
Can't wait for them to sink years of marketing & money into live service & mobile flops.
Doing a bit of both is fine, my only wish at this point is that they make another single player, slightly more linear harry potter game which focuses less on hogwarts and more on the wizarding word (you play as an Auror in the ministry for example). I'm open to a separate online title but I think they may be surprised that people care more about revisiting the fantasy/lore/atmosphere than they care for the primary gameplay loop, so
that will need some major reworking to make a compelling live service experience.
Guess the game that they just released was big sucess.
Oh, this is a great change I'm direction. Not!
When the "AAA" industry collapses, we know exactly who is to blame. The greedy morons who only see exploitation.
Lol...the aaa industry is going downhill fast
Suicide Squad bombing - Flirting
Hogwarts Legacy being the best selling game of the year - Harassment
Do people really not understand why live service is so attractive to developers and publishers? Even with Helldivers 2 being so popular and live service games dominating the Steam revenue charts, sometimes years after their initial release? The potential ROI is so much higher than traditional games that they are perfectly willing to eat a flop or four in pursuit of the next success. Yeah, people here might not like it--and I know I'm going to get downvoted for telling the truth--but it makes sense.
I think the biggest reason it attracts is not the total amount of revenue but that revenue is spread out over a longer period of time. If they make a successful live service game they can build upon it, release content and have a predictable flow of revenue from. Higher predictability makes investors happy as there is less risk than having to release a new game that can be delayed, flop or so on.
Also live services games can be released more bare bones and be allocated a higher budget if they are successful.
It is attractive for a lot of these companies (dosen’t mean I like it or think it’s healthy for the industry as a whole)
the "potential" return is much higher.... but that happends maybe 1 out of 20 games. Its a risky bet, compaired to a much safer "one and done" type game, where perphaps profit margins are smaller, but they are almost always there. Gaas type games, fail and fail harder and more often, than not.
