Warner Bros. “Looking at” Licensing Out IPs to Other Game Studios

It’s no secret that video game development is an expensive investment. There’s a lot of potential money to be made, but it takes years of development time to bring a game to market, and there’s no guarantee of breaking even, let alone turning a substantial profit. Warner Bros. seems painfully aware of that fact, having ridden the high of Hogwarts Legacy‘s release in 2023, and the low of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in 2024. During the company’s Q2 earnings call (via IGN), Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav talked about the possibility of licensing out WB IPs to other studios, in addition to developing games in-house. 

“One of the strategic advantages of owning all our IP is, as the world has changed, it used to be you launch a movie or you launch a TV series, then you do a game. But one of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and the #1 game last year, you went to Hogwarts Legacy and you entered the game and you were able to become part of that world,” said Zaslav. “That ultimately I think is a big piece of where this industry is going. That we’ll create a movie, whether it’s Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and maybe there’ll be a TV show, but the ability to go in that world and have that experience of spending time with all the characters is something that we still own. We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP. And there’s also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we’re looking at.”

Warner Bros. already licenses out some of its IPs for games that aren’t developed in-house; this fall will see the release of Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports, which is being published by GameMill Entertainment, and we’ve also seen some DC games given that treatment including Justice League: Cosmic Chaos, and DC Superhero Girls. Generally speaking, these have been games aimed at younger audiences, and we haven’t seen a real AAA approach to WB franchises outside of games published by WB Games. 

However, Zaslav’s comments seem to suggest that is a possibility, and it will be interesting to see if the company adopts an approach closer to how Disney handles IPs like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Marvel. Disney has worked closely with some of the biggest names in gaming, including PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, and Square Enix. There have still been some flops, including Marvel’s Avengers, but there’s less financial risk involved than there would be by producing these games in-house. It remains to be seen how things will play out, but it could result in a lot more games featuring DC characters, and that would definitely be a good thing. 

Do you think WB should license out more of its IP? Which developers would you like to see tackling WB properties? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!