Netflix admitted it placed no value on Warner Bros.’ video game industry in an $82.7 billion acquisition deal, raising concerns about the future of everything from Mortal Kombat to Hogwarts Legacy.
Although Warner Bros. is best known for its film and television industry, Warner Bros. Games includes many well-known video game developers and brands. Batman Arkham creator Rocksteady, LEGO Traveller’s Tales creator, Hogwarts Legacy creator Avalanche Software and Mortal Kombat creator NetherRealm are all featured in Warner Bros. books. Games.
And despite the fact that some Warner Bros. games, most notably the hit Hogwarts Legacy, have sold tens of millions of copies and generated billions of dollars in revenue, in Netflix’s case they are more of an afterthought in this mega deal.
The speech during the conference on the transaction was reported by, among others, Pocket playerNetflix co-CEO Greg Peters responded to a question about whether the purchase of Warner Bros. will accelerate her own gaming plans.
He said that although Warner Bros. has done “great work in the gaming space, we didn’t really assign any value to it from the start because they’re relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.”
“Now we’re very excited because some of these things they’ve built – Hogwarts is a great example of that – have been done quite well and we think we can incorporate that into our offering.
“They have great studios there and great people working there. So we think there’s definitely an opportunity there. But to be clear, we haven’t built that into our contract model.”
Although Warner Bros. Games has had some major hits, but has struggled since the release of Hogwarts Legacy. In January, the head of previous games, David Haddad, left the company after the costly failures of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus. Shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. Games announced plans to close Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. San Diego along with Wonder Woman cancellation. In June, Warner Bros. Games announced a restructuring focusing on four key franchises: Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, DC and Game of Thrones.
So what’s next for Warner Bros.? Games, waiting for your fate? The promising Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is expected to premiere at some point in 2026, and considering the Netflix deal may not be finalized until summer 2027, this production seems protected.
Elsewhere, a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is in the works and a single-player Batman game from Rocksteady is reportedly in the works, but nothing has been announced and we don’t have release windows. NetherRealm has not yet announced its next project as it has stopped working on updates for Mortal Kombat 1. Will there be another Mortal Kombat game or another game in the DC fighting series, Injustice? Meanwhile, Gotham Knights developer WB Games Montreal reportedly had a John Constantine game in the works, but it was never approved. The Flash game was scrapped after the DCU Flash movie bombed. Now he is allegedly helping with other games and is said to be working on a modern Game of Thrones game.
Will Netflix be interested in this? So far, Netflix has seen mixed results from its video game efforts, which has involved the hiring of a number of high-profile people and the subsequent closure of studios. It currently focuses on narrative games based on Netflix series, children’s games, party games, and ports of Grand Theft Auto.
Wesley is the news director at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
