Earlier this week, Netflix announced that it had agreed a deal to spend a whole lot of money to acquire Warner Bros. That includes pretty much everything that belongs to the company, including its gaming division, which includes various high-profile studios such as Rocksteady, Avalanche, TT Games, NetherRealm, and more.
Unsurprisingly, many people assumed that this would be a good thing for the franchises they love, with Netflix keen to reap the benefits of its fancy new games studios. Arkham fans became hopeful that Rocksteady would go back to its roots, while a petition was even set up in an attempt to get the patent on the Nemesis system removed.
Despite the overwhelming amount of new toys that could be at its disposal, it seems as though Netflix isn’t particularly interested in any of them. In fact, the company doesn’t seem all that interested in the Warner Bros. gaming division at all.
Netflix Isn’t Interested In Warner Bros. Gaming Division
First shared by Pocket Gamer (thanks Kotaku), Netflix co-CEO Gregory Peters recently said in a call with investors that the gaming division of Warner Bros. is “relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things.” Peters even claimed that the gaming side of Warner Bros. added barely anything to the $83 billion valuation of the company.
Peters does hint that he recognizes Warner Bros. has some very valuable gaming IP that is ripe for the picking, but it doesn’t sound like massive triple-A productions are on the cards for Netflix if it gets the deal over the line.
We’re Never Getting Another Studio Like Monolith Productions
As the developer shuts down we look back on its history of fantastic games.
“Now we’re super excited because some of those properties that they’ve built—Hogwarts is a great example of that—have done quite well, and we think that we can incorporate that into what we’re offering.”
“They’ve got great studios and great folks working there, so we think that there’s definitely an opportunity there. But just to be clear, we haven’t built that into our deal model.”
And to be honest, who could blame Netflix for thinking that Warner Bros. games don’t have much value? We saw Monolith closed down, and its Wonder Woman game canceled, while the games that have released recently haven’t exactly blown people away. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was an extremely high-profile flop, while Gotham Knights and MultiVersus both ended up disappointing.
Hogwarts Legacy is the only real success story Warner Bros. has had recently when it comes to gaming, and while it was a pretty massive success, Netflix will be more than happy to use the name for a cheap mobile title rather than a full-scale production that will cost hundreds of millions to make. This could be the end of big games from Warner Bros., but only time will tell if that ends up being the case.
- Released
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February 10, 2023
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 4
- Cross-Platform Play
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Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t have crossplay or crossplatform support
- Cross Save
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you can freely use your saved data between each console as long as you are connected to the internet and signed into the same account where the saved data was created
