Due to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Warner Bros. gaming revenues fell by 40% – the company is thinking about licensing franchises to third-party studios

Conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery reported results for the second quarter of 2024, once again highlighting the failure of the co-op action game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and outlining a new strategy for games based on its own franchises.

Image source: Steam (zaaaagss)

Gaming Division Quarterly Revenue, Warner Bros. Games, compared to the same period in 2023, decreased by 41%. The main culprit for the failure was Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

The reason for the decline is easy to trace – last February, Warner Bros. Games released Hogwarts Legacy, which became the best-selling game of 2023. Kill the Justice League does not claim such laurels.

CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav and head of gaming Jean-Briac Perrette confirmed that they intend to develop the gaming business, especially the free-to-play segment.

Last quarter, Warner Bros. estimated damage from Kill the Justice League at $200 million (image source: Steam)

Zaslav emphasized that Warner Bros. Games is interested in operating its 11 studios and is also seeing “high levels of interest” from outside its game franchises, which the company is currently assessing.

«We must grow and strive to capitalize on our intellectual property and its value in the gaming space,” Zaslav said regarding the potential licensing of games from Warner Bros. franchises to third-party studios.

Financial Times sources recently reported that Warner Bros. Discovery is also considering selling a stake in its gaming business to share ownership of the intellectual property with an outside partner.