WB Games Plans For Live-Service To Overtake Its Current AAA Model, Executive Says

In a continuing trend more & more studios and publishers are pursuing the shiny red ball that is live-service. While the business model works for select titles that proven to be successful, many are feeling overwhelmed and simply annoyed more titles & teams associated with single player projects now following this path. Moving ahead, Warner Bros. Games is to pursue this head on, says Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Already, we witness this with the recent release for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Other games approaching this model includes the mobile title Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions underway. However, it is clarified that the firm is not approaching this with the Monolith Productions game Wonder Woman, which is a relief.

But at the recent Morgan Stanley conference, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO of global streaming and games JB Perrette further reiterates on the firm’s backing on live-service games.

We see the world and whether it be VR devices, the Vision Pro, the virtual world, who knows exactly how it evolves, but certainly those types of platforms are only going to increase in scale and adoption. And having 11 owned studios where we’re not just a publisher of games but actually a developer of games, we think is a differentiative asset for us.

The challenge we’ve had is our business historically [in games] has been very AAA console based. That’s a great business when you have a hit like Harry Potter, it makes the year look amazing. And when you don’t have a release or unfortunately we also have disappointments – we just released Suicide Squad this quarter which was not as strong – it just makes it very volatile.

Perrette adds: “So rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around for example, Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live service where people can come in and live and work and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis.” Perrette does emphasize that the four pillars that WB Games is to focus its resources on are Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, and DC Comics.

This approach has left many online confused why this decision is being pursued. Evidently, Harry Potter spin-off ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ outsold Call of Duty in 2023. But instead it pursues live-service instead. And with the underwhelming performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it only leaves more confusion.

Recently, Warner Bros. Games did hint at one live-service making a return. In that, MultiVersus teased a beta is to be held later this year. You can read the full report by heading here.

Do you support WB Games decision or no?