Warner Bros Thinking About Licensing IPs To Other Studios?

As we reported not too long ago, many rumors are going on with Warner Bros Discovery and all the divisions under its banner. One of those rumors is that WB and Discovery might split up, as its merger has been an outright disaster in many forms. Another rumor that we covered is that they could be looking to sell off chunks of its gaming division to make back some money that they’ve lost. During a special financial meeting, CEO David Zaslav admitted that the company has options within the gaming division, including licensing out IPs.

IGNnoted that Zaslav spoke on how there is “interest” in possibly licensing out IPs:

“We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP. And there’s also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we’re looking at.”

In theory, that might not be a bad idea, as certain studios could take the IP that Warner Bros is fumbling or straight-up not using and make something special out of it. The best example of this is with one of its own studios, Avalanche. They went into a certain magical universe that hadn’t had a true game in a while and made the best hit of 2023, which is something that Zaslav was acutely aware of:

“One of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and the number one game last year, [was that] you went to Hogwarts Legacy and you entered the game and you were able to become part of that world. That, ultimately, I think is a big piece of where this industry is going. That we’ll create a movie, whether it’s Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and maybe there’ll be a TV show, but the ability to go in that world and have that experience of spending time with all the characters is something that we still own.”

While that is true, there’s a catch that can’t be ignored. That “catch” being the intent of a game and whether the team is right for it. We saw how that can backfire spectacularly via Rocksteady and their attempt to make a game with the Suicide Squad. The team had to break away from its narrative focus to create a live-service title, and WB took a huge hit from that.

Plus, we know that WB wants to see results sooner rather than later, which means they could rush games, and that will likely backfire just as badly.