It’s been a crazy few years for Warner Brothers as a company: being sold by AT&T to Discovery Inc. to form Warner Brothers Discovery has left the studio in an odd position. However, with Warner Brothers owning a huge game library and producing hit games like Hogwart’s Legacy, could we see Warner follow Netflix’s example and add video games to their streaming platform Max? Let’s discuss this possibility.
Warner Bros Games Has A Large Library With Many Fan Favourites:
Let’s start with a point in favor of this subject: Warner Brothers owns a very large game catalog including popular games like Mortal Kombat, Hogwarts Legacy, the Batman Arkham Knight series, the Injustice Series as well as retro game favorites like Primal Rage, Paper Boy and Gauntlet. So, since Warner Brothers has a huge game library, if they were to offer video games via their own cloud gaming service, they would have very few struggles in getting a supply of new games right? Well yes.. but I think my next point will explain a big problem for Warner Brothers if they try to release a cloud gaming service of their own.
Cloud Gaming is Expensive and Warner Brothers Discovery is Losing Money
Here is my biggest concern about why such an idea likely won’t come to fruition anytime soon: Warner Brothers Discovery is not a profitable company. So, the likelihood of them being able to run an expensive cloud gaming platform or even license someone else’s (like AT&T did one time to stream a Warner Bros Batman game (we miss you Stadia)) seems low.
Warner Brothers did have a huge hit with Hogwarts Legacy. The game made almost a billion dollars in just a few weeks! But, it is unclear if WB would be willing to put such a hit on a subscription service – even their subscription service. It may not be viable long-term for Warner Brothers to do such a thing. Putting the game on a cloud service would be costly, and they don’t have the resources to give something like Hogwarts Legacy away for free on an already unprofitable platform
I am curious what a cloud gaming offering from Warner Brothers Games would look like. They own game libraries from companies like Midway Arcade, Williams Arcade, and Atari Games (no – not the Atari that exists today, that’s the half they didn’t buy) as well as owning video game label Adult Swim Games. But, alas… I doubt that we will get a Warner Brothers cloud gaming rival to the likes of Netflix, Xbox, or Amazon. At least not in the near future. But time will tell.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Warner Brothers Games could release a compelling cloud gaming offering? Let us know on social media.
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