Warner Bros has said it plans to focus on free-to-play and live-service games going forward, despite premium, standalone, single-player RPG Hogwarts Legacy being the best-selling game of 2023.
As highlighted by Gamespot, Warner Bros Discovery gaming boss J.B. Perrette recently spoke at a Morgan Stanley Technology conference, where he discussed the company's plans, which include a pivot to free-to-play and live-service games. This revelation is surprising as Warner Bros' biggest release last year was Hogwarts Legacy, which doesn't feature either of these elements.
"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," Perrette said .
Despite the company's previous success with AAA games for consoles, Perrette said the market is "volatile" and that success is never guaranteed - as demonstrated by both Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's launches. To combat this, the exec says the company plans to instead focus on core franchises and bring some of them to the mobile and free-to-play market, as well as continuing to invest in live-service games that players will spend money on over time.
This doesn't mean that Warner Bros will stop developing single-player AAA games entirely; "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?" the exec asks.
Following this, industry analyst Mat Piscatella shared his thoughts on the Warner Bros news to Twitter, writing: "When a company points out that they believe making the best-selling premium game of the year did not provide enough return to not pivot the franchise that game was based on to f2p/live service... well that's a problem."
Take a look at our new games 2024 list to find out what else we can expect from the year ahead.
