Rumour: Warner Bros' Game Studios & IP 'Supposedly' Up For Sale

Would love to see Guardians of Middle Earth come back!
There's a giant MOBA shaped hole on console

Would be great to see Microsoft nab them but I agree, they seem to have more than enough on their plate with the ActivisionBlizzard acquisition...

I'd be happy for these big acquisitions to pause for now, but if you could get Batman and make him an exclusive, that is a big thing!

Also a big thing to lose out on Batman, that can't be allowed to happen.

The acquisitions rumours have been nonstop since late January and is starting to getting annoying. Both Microsoft & Sony have enough studios as it is making games for them.

Its always been a 'difficult' sell - its not the first time we've heard they may want 'out' of gaming. The issue has always been that they don't outright own their Licences - apart from Mortal Kombat.

DC, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings etc are not their IP's and I doubt they would 'sell' whatever License they have and lose the Movie Rights.

It may not be the right time to announce a 'major' purchase - before the FTC has reached a ruling deal on the A/B. Although it shouldn't impact on that. As we know, there are still LOTS of other Publishers competing with MS so can't breach the monopoly or anti-trust commission. Both of which would require MS to have almost 'no' competition or to be 'too' big for others to Compete. Its not stopped Sony, TenCent and now Embracer also buying up studio's and MS are still only 4th in terms of Gaming (would climb to 3rd if/when A/B goes through)

For example, IF there were only 3 or 4 Publishers owning ALL the Studio's and MS wanted to buy 1, thus reducing the competition down to 2 or 3 and or having more than 50% of the Market share, being in a position to control the market, that is where the FTC would step in. Its why they recommended nVidia can't buy ARM because that would instantly give them a Massive market share and control meaning AMD can't 'compete'. If MS buys A/B, there is still LOTS of other Publishers and Studio's that can compete with MS.

Rumours and Speculation will no doubt continue to rage on but until something official is announced, then I see it as pointless to discuss any potential outcomes. It only causes arguments, unnecessary concern, animosity etc...

This is actually insane to hear it's even a possibility. NetherRealm alone brings in big consistent cash with MK alone and they want to sell? Sure Rocksteady takes time to put out games but they are one of the most respected developers in the business and all of their games thus far have been great to incredible. And Harry Potter looks great too!

To hear the competition is immense for possible buyers is certainly not surprising.

I don't know how "tied in" WB games is to the wider Warner Bros company as things aren't looking good for WB in general. Years of disastrous mergers & acquisitions and bad management have left it in quite a mess. On the movie side the new Harry Potter movies have underperformed, and their DC properties have been very hit and miss in a decade where they should be cleaning up.

So if that's the case then trying to offload WB games sounds likely if they need to steady the ship.

There’s a reason I’m assuming Warner have struggled to sell the studios. Insane high prices (especially after the $300 million for the Square Enix western studios) and the fact they don’t come with any IP because they want to go down the licensing route means you are only buying talent that may not stay after the acquisition.

I assume this sale would include the Nemesis system. That's got to be worth a few billion on its own.

Licensed games are a problem on Xbox, since Sony has managed to snag the Spiderman (naturally), Wolverine and any other future Insomniac exclusives. Also Star Wars KOTOR remake (timed?). At least Xbox will have some of these games (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy, multi-plat Star Wars games) but I can see the exclusives selling a few consoles. Indiana Jones probably doesn’t have the same draw. Glad DC and Harry Potter are multi-plat currently. But just because you’re buying these studios does not mean you are guaranteed future license agreements.

Is this going to become a trading game? Like I will let you have Batman on your console if you give us Spiderman? Who knows? I don’t.

@BAMozzy DC comics is a division of Warnermedia unlike HP and LOTR which belong to their estates. I can imagine Scribblenauts being snapped up by 505 games or something though

Too many acquisitions. I wish microsoft never started buying publishers so i would hear about who they will buy or sony will counteract every week

Let's see how Microsoft manages all the new studios they currently have before buying any more

@Solidchief
Xbox has around 30 studios when Activision-Blizzard deal is done.
Sony has 16 gaming studios after Bungie deal.

So Xbox has almost twiced as many studios right now.

As long as I can still play Middle Earth games on my Xbox in the future I’m good. Can’t afford two systems so I don’t want these to go exclusive to other brands (especially not Apple or another similar company).

@ShadowofTwilight22 Not hypocritical at all. I'm talking from a business perspective... and as this is an Xbox site from a MS business perspective.

Sony has Spiderman exclusively, so a Batman exclusive would match the status wouldn't it?

While I'm sure Warner Bros might sell their game division eventually, I don't see why they would do it now. With 3 AAA games releasing in the next year or so (Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League, Hogwarts Legacy) as well as a free to play game in Multiversus, why sell now? Surely they should wait a year and rake in any profit they can from these games so they can increase the potential offers down the line...

@MattT3142 Totally with you on that one, big studios like Avalanche, Rocksteady, Monolith have been quiet for 5 years or more, and just before they are launching long awaited an pretty hyped projects, they are gonna sell off their studios and Ip? That would be stupid.

@Neverwild That's more than enough for Xbox. Hopefully at the June event we get to see a ton of games.

@themightyant I understand your reasoning, and I totally see why they would be interested in selling, I just don't see why they wouldn't wait. If they hold on selling for a year, they can rake in the earnings from 3 AAA titles, and so they can look to sell them at a higher price and earn them more money

@ShadowofTwilight22 Well, I'm not saying that PS having exclusivity to Spiderman doesn't suck or that Xbox having exclusivity to Batman wouldn't suck either, but from a business perspective and with the franchise being up for sale then MS absolutely cannot allow Sony to add Batman to their portfolio of exclusives. That would 'suck' more

Speaking personally I'm a multi-format gamer, I play everywhere, exclusives have zero effect on my ability to play a game or not.

Ideally the likes of an EA or other large publisher would allow all formats to include future releases. I mentioned EA, hate comments incoming. 🤣
I did say or other.

warner studios have been up for sale for ages but not the IP hence nobody wants to buy them

At times, I wish Microsoft wouldn’t have put in a bid on Activision blizzard. Sure it’s a huge one, but I feel like because they are tied up in that, there are some incredible studios that they have to pass on. The studios at WB are talented and getting them would be huge. The lost out on crystal dynamics and I think they’ll lose out on these as well.

Microsoft already has almost double the studio's Sony does now and some of those are being poorly managed. Rare in my opinion are not what they used to be, 343 did very poorly with Halo, (sorry but it's true) The first ever so called AAAA studio 'The Initiative' was set up years ago and haven't even made a game yet. And they have to work hard to turn Actiblizz around.

Microsoft have enough on their plate managing what they have, buying anymore until then could be a disaster.

Besides, buying anymore big publishers during the Actiblizz process and in so short a time would likely trigger an anti-competitive legislation due to the other two platform holders combined can't even match such big spending power, especially in as short time as Microsoft are doing it.

WB Games would be a great buy for the talent, but the IPs are weak.

The big ones, like Batman, LOTR, and Harry Potter, would be licensed and not owned, and for a company that wants to push IPs to different media, being stuck with just games is a bad deal. And they'll come a point when those are taken away from you. I suspect this is why MS passed over WB for Bethesda and Acti in the first place.

Microsoft bought 2. Lets not wish they get yet another one.

My prediction will be that it's between Tencent and Sony and I hope Sony doesn't lose to Tencent like it always does (warframe devs come to mind).

God forbid its EA, the killer of studios. Take two is the lesser evil. Screw Netease, I don't know them. PUBG corp would be interesting. They have that Callisto Protocol game and I believe a south korean take on AAA gaming would be nice.

@TheSilverFalcon
Avalanche is helping with Hogwarts
Monolith is making WW
Rocksteady is making TSS
WB montreal is making GK

Not quiet.

@ShadowofTwilight22 Perhaps he just came at it from an xbox only pov because...... he's commenting on an article on an Xbox site? Just a thought.

Wanna buy Coca Cola's beverage business for $200bn? But it doesn't include the formula for Coke Classic. You'll have to license that from them forever.....

@JetmanUK it's just the studio they're looking to sell I think not their big IP's like batman

@Would_you_kindly it could come with a license to use the IP for “x” number of years. That’s only way any buyer would be compelled to do it. Otherwise they get Mortal Kombat, and a bunch of games they can’t do any sequels to.

@Casco I like mortal Kombat it's my favourite fighting game but I don't think it would be worth the insane amount they'd want for their studios

@Would_you_kindly agreed, that’s why some sort of licensing deal for the other IP would need to be included