Warner Bros moving away from ‘volatile’ AAA market despite Hogwarts Legacy success

Warner Bros Discovery want to move away from the "volatile" market of AAA console games.

The studio's gaming chief J.B. Perrette has revealed the company's plans to instead focus on taking its biggest franchises to the mobile and free to play domain, as well as live service games, as they look to earn more consistent revenue.

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley event, he said: "We're doubling down on games as an area where we think there is a lot more growth opportunity that we can tap into with the IP that we have and some of the capabilities we have on the studio where we're uniquely positioned as both a publisher and a developer of games.

"Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a 'Hogwarts Legacy' or 'Harry Potter', that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?"

He pointed to the wealth of popular brands WBD has among its roster, from 'Mortal Kombat' and 'Game of Thrones' to DC and 'Harry Potter', which is supplemented by 11 different internal studios focused on game development.

He thinks making the right moves in the video game world can bring the company "meaningful growth".

However, his comments have left some people puzzled after AAA title 'Hogwarts Legacy' topped the charts as the best selling game of 2023 with 22 million copies, while 'Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League' - which does include the live service element Perrette has hyped up - "fell short" of expectations, according to chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels.