Warner Bros. Games Focuses on DC Comics, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Mortal Kombat
Warner Bros. Games is taking control of its star franchises, seemingly to the exclusion of everything else. Variety reports that the game publisher and division of Warner Bros. Discovery has put together a new leadership team composed of three new senior vice presidents: Yves Lachance, the head of in-house studio Warner Bros. Games Montréal, and Shaun Himmerick, who heads NetherRealm now senior vice presidents, development, while Steven Flenory, the boss of Warner Bros. Games’ New York studio, has been made senior vice president, central tech & services. Under them, Warner Bros. Games will be put into four divisions, one for each of their main franchises: Harry Potter, DC Comics, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones. Lachance will be in charge of the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones teams, while Himmerick will run the DC Comics and Mortal Kombat divisions. Flenory will be in charge of “game and publishing technology, customer service, quality assurance and user research.”
Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would divide itself into two separate companies: one called “Streaming and Studios,” which will run movies, television, DC Studios, HBO… basically all the entertainment; this one will be run by David Zaslav, the company’s current CEO. The other will be called “Global Networks” and will handle sports, Discovery, and CNN; this one will be run by the current CFO of Warner Bros. Discovery, Gunnar Wiedenfelds. (If you want to know why this is kind of hilarious for CNN, read this by the great John Nolte.) Unsurprisingly, Warner Bros. Games will fall under the “Streaming and Studios” company, with all the other fun things, so ultimately, these people will report to David Zaslav. There have been other recent moves in response to a bad few years for Warner Bros., such as changing the name of their streaming service, Max, back to HBO Max and ending the lunacy of hiding one of their most loved and well-respected brands.
It’s not a shock that Warner Bros. Games is focusing on these four brands. In a 2022 investor call, Zaslav said that he wanted the company to focus on its large IPs, mentioning Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and DC Comics by name. He was mostly talking about movies and television at the time, and it was only five months later that the new Harry Potter HBO show was announced, but it makes perfect sense that this strategy would eventually extend to video games, with Mortal Kombat being the other big name. Consolidating the work into different teams with different vice presidents in charge is smart, too; it’s better not to spread anyone too thin, especially when quality is a must. And that’s the key: after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League lost them $200 million after being roundly ridiculed, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions dropped like a rock after its debut, and online free-to-play fighting game (and IP mishmash) MultiVersus went offline as its studio was shuttered, Warner Bros. Games needs to make something good, something people enjoy playing and actually want to buy. That means no more Sweet Baby Inc., no more focusing on stupid characters, and no more disrespecting the lore of these brands and pissing off their fans. They’ve got a few hits under their belt, particularly the hugely successful Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1, but they’ve also just canceled a Wonder Woman game fans were looking forward to. Supposedly, there is a Batman game in development, presumably a new addition to the Arkham series (although it doesn’t have to be), and that game needs to be great to wash the taste of Suicide Squad out of everyone’s mouth. And I’d be shocked if a Hogwarts Legacy sequel or some other Harry Potter game hasn’t been in some kind of development for a year or two now. I hope these teams are up to the challenge, mostly because I’d like some great new games from these franchises, especially DC.
Let us know what you think of Warner Bros. Games focusing on its big franchises in the comments!
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