Warner Bros. is reportedly considering selling a stake in its video games business
Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly considering selling a stake in its video games business.
That’s according to Financial Times sources, who claim the media giant is looking to offload smaller assets in an attempt to help reverse a near 70% decline in its stock price since WarnerMedia and Discovery merged in 2022.
It’s said to be considering offers to sell Polish broadcaster TVN or a stake in its video games arm, which is home to a dozen studios.
They include Avalanche Software (Hogwarts Legacy), Rocksteady (Suicide Squad), TT Games (Lego), NetherRealm (Mortal Kombat), Monolith Productions (Middle-earth: Shadow of War) and Warner Bros. Games Montréal (Gotham Knights).
Last month, Warner announced that it had acquired Player First Games, the studio behind free-to-play platform fighter MultiVersus, for an undisclosed sum.
Warner Bros. Discovery exec JB Perrette said earlier this year that the company’s games business revolves around four main intellectual properties, “which are all billion-dollar plus businesses themselves”.
They are Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, DC and Harry Potter. While last year’s Harry Potter spin-off, Hogwarts Legacy, was 2023’s best-selling game, Warner took a $200 million loss on this year’s once highly anticipated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said last year that the company was focused on transforming its biggest franchises “from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms”.
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