Warner Bros. Looking at Licensing Its Franchises to Other Game Studios - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 September 2024 / 2,348 Views
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and president of global streaming and games JB Perrette in an earnings call stated the company is looking at licensing out its franchises to other video game studios that it does not own.
"We look at the evolution of the storytelling in interactive entertainment as a space and say it's one of the unique areas in media that is growing, both growing in terms of time spent, growing in terms of engagement, and growing in terms of revenue," said Perrette (via IGN). "And so we still see this as a huge opportunity for us.
"We know that our franchises, particularly in a world where the gaming industry-launching brand new franchises is getting harder and harder for a number of reasons, including IDFA deprecation and more challenges with marketing and customer acquisition And that franchises like the ones that we have are in high demand, and can help in launching games.
"You still need a great game, and the reality is, we've had the unfortunate- in a short period of 12 months, we went from having the record year in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to unfortunately having the opposite side of that spectrum with Suicide Squad. And it is still hit-driven nature of some of that business, but one of the areas we are particularly leaning into, which is about half of the $200 billion games business, is the free-to-play space."
Zaslav added, "One of the strategic advantages of owning all our IP is, as the world has changed, it used to be you launch a movie or you launch a TV series, then you do a game.
"But one of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and the #1 game last year, you went to Hogwarts Legacy and you entered the game and you were able to become part of that world. That ultimately I think is a big piece of where this industry is going. That we'll create a movie, whether it's Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and maybe there'll be a TV show, but the ability to go in that world and have that experience of spending time with all the characters is something that we still own.
"We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP. And there's also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we're looking at. Because as JB said, we need to get bigger, and the IP that we own and the value that it has in the gaming space is something we're looking to take advantage of."
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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Insomniac or Sucker Punch could make Batman great again.
Nah, rocksteady can do It. They Just need get away from GAAS and solve some internal problems, we don't need "exclusive to Playstation" Batman.
Yep. Frankly they just need to make something that plays like the OG games and has a decent story and it could sell millions.
What a joke,
WB games is a joke,
Yep just let go of ur products coz u guyz are hopeless
Good idea. Baldur's Gate 3 shows how well an external studio can eventually work with the IP. Nintendo is more hands-on, but also had some success in outsourcing production of some games based on their IPs. Also - WB itself currently suffers from the idea of live service games. I hope they overcome it at some point, but it would be good if in the meantime external teams without the live service obligation can show how it is done.
Warner has more IPs that studios to work on them and, as long as they have some control over what they'll be used for, it can be a good way to get some money in and keep the interest in those franchises alive.
Allowing your licences to go out can be a mixed bag, we've seen that with Disney. For every Jedi Fallen Order, there is a Marvel's Avengers but if it means we might get a DC game where superman isn't evil or a new Wacky Races? Let's see.
It also might allow them to get their own studios to have more creative freedom to create new and exciting IPs that they can add loads of microtransactions to. They love some microtransactions.
For Microsoft, it could be very good! Let Activision Blizzard go back to making some superhero IPs.
Now, if Warner wants to break up the studios and sell them separately, I think Microsoft would be interested in TT Games, because Lego is a great family game. There is also NetherRealm, which could finally develop a new Killer Instinct, as well as developing new fighting games or continuing with MK. As for Sony, I can only associate it with superheroes, so it would be logical for them to want to buy studios focused on this and the licenses to develop new games.
