Warner Bros.’s protracted dive Games continues – MultiVersus couldn’t, but management has a plan

Conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery reported results for the third quarter of 2024, highlighting yet another disappointing game release and outlining a plan to turn around the current unfavorable situation.

Image source: Steam

Gaming Division Quarterly Revenue, Warner Bros. Games, compared to the same period in 2023, decreased by 31%. The success of last year’s releases – in particular, Mortal Kombat 1 – did not allow the indicator to fall even lower.

The main culprit for Warner Bros.’s troubles. Games this time turned out to be a shareware fighting game MultiVersus. Its failures resulted in the company writing off another $100 million (in addition to $200 million due to the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League).

Recall that in July Warner Bros. Games has acquired MultiVersus developer Player First Games. The game was restarted on May 28 on PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, 11 months after the end of the open beta.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is the only new game from Warner Bros. in the quarter – also did not show strong results

According to the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery by David Zaslav, the gaming division is currently “significantly behind” on target, but the company has a plan.

As it became known, Warner Bros. decided to focus on four of its game franchises with the greatest potential: Hogwarts Legacy (a sequel is already in development), Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC (particularly Batman).

«We will move away from trying to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 different games… We will focus the efforts of our proven studios on these key franchises to increase the success rate,” Zaslav added.