Is Warner Bros. Games Acquisition Really Happening?

The current situation in the gaming industry seems to worsen every day, and now Warner Bros. has joined this downfall. It seemed unlikely, particularly considering that they bought out the team behind MultiVerses, but Warner Bros. Games now is in a bit of trouble. According to anonymous insiders speaking with the Financial Times, the company is attempting to sell off assets to boost its share price.

This comes at a time when the gaming and media industries are seeing widespread declines. Even some of the top media websites have also confirmed that there have been talks about Warner Bros. planning on turning around their stock price decline by selling a piece of their video game company to liquidate some minor assets. The media powerhouse is trying to salvage its stock price, which has fallen by over 70% since Warner Media and Discovery combined in 2022, by selling off smaller businesses.

 

Obviously, everyone will point their fingers toward the failure of their last two games, and once you take a look at it, you can begin to understand the factors. Rocksteady Studios' collaboration with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a complete disaster, where they wasted two hundred million dollars. Not to mention the badly panned Gotham Knights. This means they have been severely underperforming in recent games, and it has been devastating to their stock price; forcing them to consider selling off a few of these. 

Even though Warner Bros. hasn't disclosed anything, reports have surfaced that the Polish broadcaster TVN is being considered for sale, along with a portion of its video game division. This division has many studios and some very remarkable IPs. It's difficult to predict how this dealing might be structured since we don't know whether the studios planning to sell the IPs. But that is all that would be required if a large corporation were to come in and purchase it. 

Nevertheless, it is stated that these studios would comprise Avalanche Software, known for its Hogwarts legacy; Rocksteady, known for Batman and Suicide Squad; TT Games, known for the massive Lego games; Netherrealm, known for Mortal Kombat; Monolith Productions, known for Middle Earth Shadow of War; and Warner Brothers Games Montreal, known for Gotham Knights.

Their conversation partners and listeners remain a mystery to us. Naturally, every time the topic of acquisition arrives, Xbox enthusiasts will be quick to point out that Microsoft should definitely buy this. Having video games with an iconic character is necessary for them to compete with some of the PlayStation titles. However, it wouldn't shock me if other, larger corporations are also vying for this. We know that around 2020, rumors circulated that WB Games was being considered for acquisition by publisher Electronic Arts. Perhaps this time, Sony will think about it and turn things around in their favor with some of the renowned IPs.

There has been a lot going on recently with the video game media giants, and it appears like Warner Bros. is one of those studios, but maybe it's only a few. Last week, Xbox shut down four of its Studios, which was followed by Bungie's massive layoffs and Ubisoft's drastic share price drop due to recent events. So, whether PlayStation is in a position to contemplate such a huge acquisition is something we're unsure about at the moment.

However, this is a tragic situation since we have been anticipating a new Batman game from Warner Bros. Games., and we will certainly keep an eye on it to see if anything develops. This is, once again, could all just rumors, as Warner Bros. hasn't given any official statement yet. But given the current situation of the industry, it wouldn't shock me if anything does happen in the end.
 

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed