Warner to Address “Volatile” Industry with Live Service

Some parts of the games industry is like watching a friend shoot themselves in the face, and then blame someone else for the massive hole in the side of its head. I’ve no better way of explaining the recent comments from the Morgan Stanley speaking event on Monday that Gamespot reported on yesterday. At the event, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment (I remember when it was Warner Bros. Games), JB Perrette commented on the future of the company following the murder of Rocksteady with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

You can be criminally insane and sign up to watch the webcast yourself, listen to boring people say boring things about boring numbers, or we can quote what was said. Yes, I thought you’d prefer the latter. As reported by Gamespot, Perrette said, “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.” Ok, the gun is being raised to the head.

“The challenge we’ve had is our [games] business historically 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 said.

He goes on to say, as he shoots himself in the head, “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?” Despite the commercial success of Hogwarts Legacy, often held aloft by Joanne’s biggest grass supporters, the critically mixed Hogwarts Legacy sold 22 million copies according to Variety in January.

Here is a wild idea Perrette, instead of calling the Triple-A console market volatile, which it can be when it takes 10 years to make a game, make games people actually want. Something they can play and enjoy instead of “live and work and build and play in that world.” Everyone eventually moved away from Habbo Hotel.

If you want to be a success in the live service market, you need to be the success. Not for long, but long enough that you are the trend, and that’s the problem with Suicide Squad‘s lack of success – it took too long to develop and doesn’t have a trend to latch on to. Yet, for some reason, WBD continues to double down on live service titles. Perrette also noted that there are multiple free-to-play mobile titles set to release later this year, with the hope of achieving this goal.

Perrettee also notes that while the shift in focus from console Triple-A titles is early, the strategical focus should result in more growth between 2025-2027. Cutting through the business nonsense, Perrette believes that the success of the live service focus should come to light sometime next year and in the years following. It might help to know what people actually want instead of casinos with your shiny IP encasing the slot machines of “live and work and build and play in that world.”