Warner Bros filed trademarks with the US Patents and Trademarks Office today regarding a new digital distribution system. The details are unclear for now, but it appears to be another DRM system competing with Steam, Origin, Uplay, and others.
There are several filings for a trademark to be called WB Play. These include filings for audio and video broadcasting services, online retail stores, and entertainment. You can see the logo below:
Of special interest are the details for this application for downloadable virtual goods:
“Downloadable virtual goods; downloadable electronic strategy and instructional guides for computer and video games; computer game software; video game software; audio and video recordings in the fields of computer and video games; downloadable multimedia files containing artwork, text, audio, video, games, and Internet Web links relating to computer and video.”
Warner Bros games are not just on Steam, but Origin. Our source speculates that Warner Bros may take their games away to sell exclusively on WB Play. However, it is just as possible that they will opt to keep using Steam alongside their digital distribution system, and/or that WB Play will run in Steam as DRM as well.
The Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor website itself already has the WB Play logo branding, so whatever WB Play is, it has been in the works for some time now, and Shadow of Mordor is the first game using it. In fact, Warner Bros registered the domain wbplay.com last year and deliberately kept it empty.
A single platform for Warner Bros content, including movies, shows, music, and gaming, will be truly a force to be reckoned with beyond gaming. WB Play could be competing with Netflix and even HBO, alongside a parallel competition with Steam.
Here and now, however Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor will be the first game with WB Play. Whether this is pure DRM, a client, just an online store, or all of this and more, could mean big things for gaming.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is coming on September 30, to Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Stay tuned to GameRanx for the latest news on WB Play and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
