As part of Netflix’s $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., the streaming giant has been fairly candid about the fact that WB Games was not a major driver in its decision.
This point was somewhat bluntly underscored by comments from Netflix co-CEO Gregory Peters, who suggested the gaming division played only a minor role in the overall strategy.
That stance has generated a large amount of debat given the potential strength of WB Games’ portfolio.
Keep in mind that WB Game's biggest franchises include WB Games' top sellers include:
- Hogwarts Legacy, which was one of the biggest games of 2023
- the LEGO Games series- which have sold over 100 million units to date
- the Mortal Kombat and Batman Arkham franchises
- and the Middle-earth: Shadow of War/Mordor- which has the innovative, patented Nemesis system.
Per Pocket Gamer, Peters stated at a press conference, "They’ve got great studios and great folks working there. So we think that there’s definitely an opportunity there. But just to be clear, we haven’t built that into our deal model...[they've done] great work in the game space, [but] we actually didn’t attribute any value to that from the get-go because they’re relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things."
While that assessment may sound a bit severe at first glance, it’s important to keep in mind that WB Games is still reeling from several very public and extremely expensive missteps.
Titles such as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, MultiVersus, and the now-cancelled Wonder Woman project all failed to meet expectations, both critically and financially.
Among them, Suicide Squad reportedly resulted in a staggering $200 million loss for the publisher, while MultiVersus is said to have cost the company around $100 million.
Acknowledging these setbacks, Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav admitted during a previous earnings call, “We recognise [the games business] is substantially underperforming its potential right now.”
Assuming Netflix doesn’t scrap any of these projects if and when an acquisition moves forward, WB Games’ roadmap still includes a Hogwarts Legacy sequel, a new single-player Batman title from Rocksteady, and next year’s LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.
For its part, Netflix has seemingly shifted away from its own video game efforts, closing a number of its own studios and instead, focusing on video game adaptations.
From a financial standpoint, it's possible that Netflix may opt to just sell video game licensing rights to other studios, rather than produce and sell its own games.