I come bearing news: everything will remain the same. Since early last year, we've been hearing that Warner Bros. Games has plans to focus on big franchises like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, DC and Mortal Kombat, which are the four biggest pieces of intellectual property they own. Now, The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets are here with a fresh update: Warner Bros. Games will continue to focus on big franchises like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, DC and Mortal Kombat.
The main thing that's changing is that Warner Bros. Discovery is shuffling around the personnel involved. Yves Lachance, the studio head at Warner Bros. Games Montréal, will be promoted to the position of senior VP and have dominion over the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones franchises. Shaun Himmerick, the head of NetherRealm Studio, will also become a senior VP, this time with control of the Mortal Kombat and DC franchises. Steven Flenory, the head of Warner Bros. Games New York, will become a senior VP as well; he'll be in charge of "central tech & services, overseeing game and publishing technology, customer service, quality assurance and user research." All three will report to JB Perrette, CEO of global streaming & games for Warner Bros. Discovery.
I get the idea that "senior VP" is a catch-all job title given to people the top brass aren't quite willing to promote into the top levels of the company; when do they get to drop the "V"? Anyway, Perrette seemed very excited about this new old direction for the games division:
"Our company is home to some of the biggest franchises in the world, and we are optimizing our team structure to develop long-term franchise roadmaps to delight players and fans of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC games. We are very fortunate to have a strong stable of development and technology talent, and Yves, Shaun and Steven are respected leaders with excellent track records in their areas of expertise. I’m looking forward to working closely with them and the team as we work to make the best games possible for our key franchises."
Another likely reason WBD is shuffling things around is because the company is splitting in two, with one company focused on studios and streaming (and, it's assumed, games) and another focused on linear TV networks. The former company will be run by WBD CEO David Zaslav, one of the most overpaid men in entertainment, and the latter will be run by WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels.
So far, the biggest recent hit put out by WBD is Hogwarts Legacy, a big splashy single-player Harry Potter game that came out in 2023. I feel like the company is still chasing that high. They've hit some speed bumps along the way, like 2024's multiplayer game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which got a lot of flak from critics and fans for feeling generic. On the Game of Thrones side of things, an open world mobile game called Game of Thrones: Kingsroad just came out. There's also a real-time strategy game called Game of Thrones: War for Westeros in the pipeline. Although all this corporate reshuffling is being sold as news, I doubt it will have much effect on what kinds of games get made going forward.
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