The definition of insanity (Warner Bros. Games)
Despite having lost $200 million on Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. is continuing to double down on more live service games.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before but the very public failure of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is not having the effect you might have expected at publisher Warner Bros. Games.
This is despite the game being responsible for a 41% drop in sales this year, compared to 2023 when Hogwarts Legacy was released. Warner is thought to have lost at least $200 million on Suicide Squad, which was released in February to mediocre reviews and practically non-existent sales.
Many specifically criticised the fact that it’s a live service game, for many of its problems with repetitive missions and gameplay, but Warner boss JB Perrette is doubling down on more live service titles, while CEO David Zaslav states that they may choose to license out properties like DC Comics in the future, similarly to how Marvel operates.
One of the many complaints about Suicide Squad is that it wasted the time and talent of Batman: Arkham Asylum creator Rocksteady Studios, whose only previous experience was with single-player games.
The best case scenario now is that Warner has realised this mistake and will farm out future live service titles to other developers. This would allow them to let their internal studios, which includes Shadow Of Morder creator Monolith Productions (who are currently working on a Wonder Woman game) to go back to what they do best.
Sadly, it’s more likely that Warner will just force everyone to make live service games, with many worried that Rocksteady and others could eventually be shut down.
Nominal rival Marvel doesn’t make any of its own games internally and instead licenses out its properties to many different developers. Zaslav has implied Warner may be thinking of doing that as well, although there’s no suggestion they’ve made any deals yet.
‘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,’ Zaslav told investors.
‘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.’
One of the key problems is that Zaslav has no background in games and yet seems to have latched onto the live service game buzz, despite Warner having had no notable success with the concept so far.
On the contrary, it’s biggest success by far has been Hogwarts Legacy, which is a resolutely single-player experience – although the execs don’t seem keen to acknowledge that fact.
‘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,’ said Perrette.
‘We do think we are subscale and we have more opportunities to grow in that space, which is a big part of the market. And when we do, then it’ll help also provide some more balance to our games business, from the inevitably cyclicality of more console-based releases which have a three-four year time horizon and a little bit more lumpiness even when you do get it right.’
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This is the sort of thing execs were saying five years or so ago, when games like Fortnite and Apex Legends had convinced publishers that live service games were the new must-have genre to invest in, before most companies released that, actually, it’s incredibly difficult to score a prolonged hit with them.
It’s still unclear whether Sony has got that memo, following its early enthusiasm for the concept, but Warner definitely doesn’t seem to have, which can only lead to more disappointment in the future.
Zaslav was made CEO specifically in order to cut Warner’s debt (the company made an overall loss of $10 billion in the last quarter), which is where a lot of the fear for the future of its first party studios comes from.
In fact, this month there have been rumours that Warner is looking to sell off some or all of its game business, but even if they do that they’ll still have control of licences like DC and Harry Potter and could force other companies to continue to make live service games for them.
Mrs Freeze is unlikely to have players flooding back to Suicide Squad (Warner Bros. Games)
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