Warner Bros. has revealed in a recent letter to its shareholders that, while 2024 was quite disappointing for its games division, the company has plans to be more successful in the gaming market in 2025. Part of this plan is for WB Games to “refocus our resources and capital on proven IP and games from proven, world class studios.”
The company describes its games business as “a strategic differentiator,” since studios under the WB Games banner can tap into the various IPs owned by the media company to make games. It also says that the gaming market is “one of the fastest growing media segments”, thanks to its “over three billion global gamers.”
“As we have previously said, 2024 was a disappointing year for our Games business and we have recently announced a restructuring plan to refocus our resources and capital on proven IP and games from proven, world class studios,” said the studio in the letter. “We are focusing our Games business around four tentpole franchises that have each generated over $1 billion in consumer sales in past years: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC – particularly top tier characters like Batman.”
Hogwarts Legacy was one of the big video game releases namedropped in the letter. Thanks to the open-world game’s massive success, Warner Bros. has described it as being one of only three of its franchises in the last 15 years to have become one of the best-selling games of the year.
“Just two years ago, our Games team broke through with Hogwarts Legacy and created a completely new gaming franchise that was the best-selling game of the year – a result that only three other franchises in the last 15 years have achieved,” the letter continues. “That gives us confidence that with our re-focused strategy we can get back to producing high-quality games built for long term consumer engagement, which we expect to propel our Games division back to profit in 2025 and emerge as a more significant contributor to growth in the years ahead.”
The letter reiterates what Warner Bros. Discover CEO David Zaslav had said to shareholders back in November 2024. Acknowledging the company’s stumbles in the gaming business, Zaslav said that studios under the WB Games banner would focus on its four major IPs.
“We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans: Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC, in particular Batman,” said Zaslav. “We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio.”
More recently, in a bid to refocus its efforts, Warner Bros. closed down a trio of studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego. Along with the closure of the studios, the company also cancelled the long-in-development video game adaptation of Wonder Woman.
“This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent within them,” said the studio in a statement.
For more on the current state of Warner Bros. Games, here are our thoughts on what has been happening with the company.
