It feels like only yesterday that WarnerMedia was shopping around for someone to buy the majority of their game studios, it now appears that the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery is hoping to pick right back up on that thread.
The murmurings come from Fanbyte Media’s Imran Khan, tweeting that he is “heading a decent bit of chatter” regarding the their latest plans.
Interested parties include EA, Take-Two, Microsoft, Sony, Tencent, Netease, and PUBG Corp. WBD wants to sell studios and license IP, supposedly.
— Imran Khan (@imranzomg) April 29, 2022
The list of studios under the ownership of the WB Interactive studio is far from forgettable, with big names such as:
- Monolith Productions – developer of the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series
- NetherRealm Studios – home of the Injustice and Mortal Kombat franchises
- Rocksteady Studios – legendary developers of the Batman: Arkham series and upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
- TT Games – produces LEGO games
- Avalanche Software and Portkey Games – currently developing the critically desired Hogwarts Legacy
There are also a number of ‘home base’ WB studios on offer located in New York, Boston, Montreal, San Diego and San Francisco.
Alarmingly, Imran also mentions that the plans may involve selling off Studios, but retaining some of their larger intellectual properties. Meaning they could, in theory, sell off NetherRealm and retain the license to Mortal Kombat. For properties such as Batman and Suicide Squad, this could open a lot of opportunities for other developers to pitch ideas – or even flood a market that was reasonably solid under the guiding hand of Rocksteady.
The interested parties are the usual list of big industry players, with some of the larger names already having a good relationship with some of the studios. Sony for example has already had some exclusive content and benefits with both Rocksteady and Netherrealm, so perhaps they would seek to bring those studios into their own personal fold. Other interested names include serial buyers Electronic Arts, Netease, Take-Two and Tencent.
A somewhat relevant note to mention is a recent comment from Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav via The Wrap, where he discusses the company having plans to make nearly $3 billion in cuts across their platforms. While nothing concrete was mentioned about the interactive media arms of the business, moving forward there is a big focus on restructuring within the company and cost-cutting via consolidation.
Of course all of this is currently conjecture and rumour via Twitter, so feel free to bust out your grainiest salt. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this to see how my beloved Mortal Kombat fares.
How do you feel about big name studios changing owners? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
