WB Games is considering a Disney-style licensing model

Today, Warner Bros held its Q2 earnings call and as expected, the gaming division is continuing to suffer. The low performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has crushed growth, and now, WB is looking to license out its IP in the future instead. 

It would seem that recent rumours of Warner Bros selling off WB Games were overblown. Currently, the company is considering different options to improve the financials for its gaming division, including an IP licensing model, something that has worked out very well for Disney with its Marvel and Star Wars licenses.

During the call, WB Games head, Zaslav, stated that WB has seen “a lot of interest” among third-parties in licensing Warner Bros IP, like DC characters, Harry Potter and others. This is an area that WB is now looking into as it looks to keep its gaming division afloat.

The company has no plans to sell off its 11 internal studios either. It just recently acquired Player First Games to continue work on MultiVersus, and WB is looking into more ‘free to play' titles too. Interestingly, the term ‘live service' didn't come up as often as it did prior to the launch of Suicide Squad, so perhaps those ambitions have soured a little. Still, WB should have a much easier time maintaining a live service style game in the free to play market, rather than the premium game market.

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KitGuru Says: WB owns some of the biggest IP in the world and it should look to leverage that more by licensing. It can still make its own games in-house, but I'd love to see a new studio put together a new single-player Batman game to rival Insomniac's Spider-Man. 

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