Summary
Warner Bros.is currently planning to transform its most popular franchises into live services, according to information revealed during the company’s latest quarterly earning call. With recent releases such asMortal Kombat 1achieving critical successand selling very well, it seems that WB wants to use this popularity to support its games for even longer.
2023 has been an excellent year for Warner Bros.’s gaming division so far. Released back in February,Hogwarts Legacybecame one of the best-selling games of the year, still outselling new games months after its original launch. The recentMortal Kombat 1managed to sell almost 3 million units so far, another pretty good mark considering the game has not been out for two months yet. Now, WB is looking for ways to expand its profitability with famous franchises even more.
WB Discovery president David Zaslav talked about the gaming division during therecent Warner Bros. quarterly earning call. Zaslav explained that the current goal of the company is to focus more on live services, multiplatform, and F2P games. This would mean supporting games for longer than now, for around three to four years. This, theWarner Bros.executive explains, would drive more engagement from the audience and be able to “generate greater post-purchase revenue.” Zaslav said, “Our focus is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always-on gameplay through live services, multiplatform, and free-to-play extensions with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms.
Our focus is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms.
While Warner Bros.' plan makes sense considering the current popularity of its games, essentiallyevery big gaming company wants to have a live servicenow. The number of possible live-service games is limited by demand and while some games achieve great success, others fail to find audiences that will keep playing. Titles such asApex Legends MobileandBattlefield Mobilehave already shut down in 2023, for example. So, it remains to be seen how Warner Bros. will handle this.
While Warner Bros. plans its live service offerings for the future, its current games continue to sell well, and one of its latest hits is about to gain a new port.Hogwarts Legacywill be out for the Switchsoon. Considering how stable the PS4 and Xbox One ports of the game were, the Switch port is expected to be another solid release.
