During today's Warner Bros. Discovery Q3 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav addressed the company's gaming and film sectors, emphasizing the need for "more consistent" release strategies. This year has been challenging for Warner Bros. Discovery, with several high-profile releases—including Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, MultiVersus, and Joker: Folie à Deux—significantly underperforming. Zaslav noted that the company's gaming division is currently "underperforming its potential," with inconsistency being a persistent issue across various sectors (via The Verge). He further mentioned that Warner Bros. Games revenue dropped by 31% from July to September compared to the previous year, a period that saw the launch of Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023. MultiVersus, in particular, has been a major setback for Warner Bros. Games.
"We incurred another $100 million plus impairment due to the underperforming releases, primarily MultiVersus this quarter, bringing the total writedown year-to-date to over $300 million in our games business, a significant factor in this year’s studio profit decline," stated chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels (via IGN). These outcomes follow a successful 2023 for the Warner Bros. Discovery game division, with Hogwarts Legacy being the best-selling game in the US last year and achieving global sales of over 30 million copies. Warner Bros. Games is now developing a sequel that could tie into the upcoming Harry Potter TV series, and a Hogwarts Legacy Definitive Edition with additional story content is reportedly in the works.
Zaslav also highlighted last year's decision to focus more on live-service games, despite the single-player Hogwarts Legacy being a top seller for the company. In contrast, the live-service Suicide Squad game was "disappointing" upon its release earlier this year, having a $200 million impact on the company's financials. Recently, Zaslav discussed the possibility of licensing out Warner Bros. Discovery's IP to third-party studios. "We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP. There's also significant interest from others in leveraging some of that IP for gaming, which we're considering," Zaslav mentioned in August.
Source link: https://www.gamespot.com
