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Warner Bros. Wants To Shift Away From "Volatile" AAA Console Games, Lean Into Free-To-Play And Mobile

FeralEcho

Member
Remember this masterpiece of a free to play game that WB released?
JVG8zHs.png


No? Don't worry not even WB remembers it since they shut it down a year after release after how much success it had 😂😂😂
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Jumping off a bus that's headed for a brick wall (Rocksteadys Batman games) is dangerous, and many people will get hurt doing so (Suicide Squad)...but that brick wall is coming whether you stick your landing or not.

The key is to stick your landing.
I'm baffled by almost all of your opinions on every topic. It's like you want every company to fuck us and then demand more.
Are you paid to defend those stupid takes? Please tell me your are paid. And yeah I know "uuuh I have a different opinion so your are mean to me" sorry not sorry you don't have a different take, you have a shitty take every. single. time.

Why Rocksteady's Batman games would head for a wall? You don't think a Batman Beyond game would have been more successful than SSKTJ? Again thats a shitty analogy.
If WB want to "stick the landing", maybe don't ask a studio specialized in single player games to make a GAAS?
 
I swear, its gotta be a crime making people like this responsible for supervision over creative outlets and running their portfolio. Its salt to the wound that they're sitting on IPs like F.E.A.R., Condemned and Midway's entire catalogue without doing anything about them.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
This is hilarious. As predicted they are going to GaaS the living shit out of Hogwarts and then have a Pikachu face when it bombs.

The company envisions a future Harry Potter game where you can "live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I'm baffled by almost all of your opinions on every topic. It's like you want every company to fuck us and then demand more.
Are you paid to defend those stupid takes? Please tell me your are paid. And yeah I know "uuuh I have a different opinion so your are mean to me" sorry not sorry you don't have a different take, you have a shitty take every. single. time.

Why Rocksteady's Batman games would head for a wall? You don't think a Batman Beyond game would have been more successful than SSKTJ? Again thats a shitty analogy.
If WB want to "stick the landing", maybe don't ask a studio specialized in single player games to make a GAAS?

The difference between you and me is simple.

You prefer a certain game type so you let your preferences cloud your strategic judgement.

I don't. I follow the evidence.
 
Interesting how the phrases are pushed for the individual narrative

“Volatile “ for AAA games

And a couple of weeks ago it was

“Plastic box warriors” regarding fans of the Xbox console

Hmmm
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Dominated by very, very few players.

Winning the F2P and mobile market is like playing the lottery. Almost zero chance of success.
Go tell that to the one 21 year old Roblox kid who created Lethal Company. Or to Arrowhead Studios. Or the 6 people who made The Last Epoch. Or the Palworld devs...

Big publishers, with skin in the game, and access to detailed analytics are seeing something very different than you are.
 
Warner Bros. published the best-selling video game of 2023 with Hogwarts: Legacy (22 million copies sold as of 01/09/2024) which just so happened to be a single-player experience that respected the Harry Potter IP and was made as a love-letter to fans of the series.

Last month Warner Bros. published a Suicide Squad game which was built from the ground up as a grindy GAAS experience that completely disrespects many of the characters that fans of DC Comics have come to know and love. It has sold way below expectation, already has a dead online community, and by most credible accounts is simply not a fun game to play for any amount of time.

Any logical person leading WB would look at these two games and deduce rather quickly that consumers want and are willing to support more games like Hogwarts: Legacy with a single player focus and less games like Suicide Squad which are designed around the hit-or-miss (mostly miss) GAAS playbook of hoping players are engaged for months and years replaying repetitive missions with slight variations every season. WB leadership chose option #2. These are the same folk making millions of dollars every year because many are conditioned to believe that; "CEOs are much smarter than normal employees and they deserve to make 300x more than the average employee".

crazy cuckoo GIF
 

mdkirby

Gold Member
Gaming higher ups are this meme personified just replace children with gamers.
H55I4It.png
pretty much. My wife and many of her friends who rarely play games all played Harry Potter. We both played through with separate accounts. Not a single one of us will be playing it if the sequel ends up as a GAAS, unless by GAAS they mean a 100 hour story, then every week there will be new free story added, and every 6 months a new paid expansion.
 

FeralEcho

Member
What are their 10 attempts at Live Service?
Gotham Knights
Suicide Squad
Multiversus
Back 4 Blood
Shadow of War(this was supposed to be heavily gaas but they backpedaled immediately after launch)
Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Kombat 1
Injustice 2

Sure its 8 not 10 but still 8 games with most being complete utter disasters financially isn't exactly sticking the landing,more like breaking an ankle and hopping to the hospital.
 

Interfectum

Member
Go tell that to the one 21 year old Roblox kid who created Lethal Company. Or to Arrowhead Studios. Or the 6 people who made The Last Epoch. Or the Palworld devs...

Big publishers, with skin in the game, and access to detailed analytics are seeing something very different than you are.
creating lethal company is not what WB is talking about lol.

These billion dollar companies want the next Fortnite or Roblox… not fucking Last Epoch.
 
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Go tell that to the one 21 year old Roblox kid who created Lethal Company. Or to Arrowhead Studios. Or the 6 people who made The Last Epoch. Or the Palworld devs...

Big publishers, with skin in the game, and access to detailed analytics are seeing something very different than you are.


This is so wrong. Precisely, the examples you provide are mostly disruptive games that have nothing to do with analytics and trends.

You can expect that type of move from an indie studio or devs who have creative freedom. There is no fucking way a company like WB makes a game like those. It takes a completely different mindset.
 

Luc2010

Member
They better start making better games. Sales do not grow on trees. I haven't bought a WB game in a while. The last one I played was MK X. Even then, I only played it on Game Pass.
 
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KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
The difference between you and me is simple.

You prefer a certain game type so you let your preferences cloud your strategic judgement.

I don't. I follow the evidence.
Season 3 What GIF by On My Block


Which evidence? About What? What king of games I prefer? Please tell me because right now I'm playing a GAAS (Helldivers II) and yet my favorite games are RDR II, Mass Effect etc... AND YET AGAIN I love to play some Tarkov, CS, Age of Empires etc etc...)
So please, tell me since you know me that well, what do you mean? Like, this is my list of installed games on Steam:

image.png


Do you see a pattern? Of course not because I just like to play good games rather they are single player, multi player, coop, GAAS or not I don't give a shit. If a game is good, it's good period. So again, please stop your nonsense and question yourself.

Go tell that to the one 21 year old Roblox kid who created Lethal Company. Or to Arrowhead Studios. Or the 6 people who made The Last Epoch. Or the Palworld devs...

Big publishers, with skin in the game, and access to detailed analytics are seeing something very different than you are.
You can't pick the very few successful GAAS to prove your point, otherwise I will list all the failed GAAS and you will see that there are far more failures than successes. Stop your bullshit.
Also Lethal Company? In this conversation about big companies like WB? Really? Reaaaaaaaaaaaally? Do you see how dishonest you are?
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Gotham Knights
Suicide Squad
Multiversus
Back 4 Blood
Shadow of War(this was supposed to be heavily gaas but they backpedaled immediately after launch)
Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Kombat 1
Injustice 2

Sure its 8 not 10 but still 8 games with most being complete utter disasters financially isn't exactly sticking the landing,more like breaking an ankle and hopping to the hospital.

Now tell us the ROI of each. WB knows that information. I'm sure you do as well.
 
Go tell that to the one 21 year old Roblox kid who created Lethal Company. Or to Arrowhead Studios. Or the 6 people who made The Last Epoch. Or the Palworld devs...

Big publishers, with skin in the game, and access to detailed analytics are seeing something very different than you are.
Those are all relatively small studios that got lucky. Since they have less suits looking over their shoulder and most decisions are made by a creative rather than by a committee that is only focused on deadlines and the bottom-line above all else. Even when these smaller studios do create a hit game, the hype only lasts for a few months and they never create another game that has the same impact.
 

Caffeine

Gold Member
Gotham Knights
Suicide Squad
Multiversus
Back 4 Blood
Shadow of War(this was supposed to be heavily gaas but they backpedaled immediately after launch)
Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Kombat 1
Injustice 2

Sure its 8 not 10 but still 8 games with most being complete utter disasters financially isn't exactly sticking the landing,more like breaking an ankle and hopping to the hospital.
gotham knights was backpedaled too, the menus and gear is still there but they backpedaled hard into a sp/co-op experience.
 

TheUsual

Gold Member
I swear, its gotta be a crime making people like this responsible for supervision over creative outlets and running their portfolio. Its salt to the wound that they're sitting on IPs like F.E.A.R., Condemned and Midway's entire catalogue without doing anything about them.
God what I wouldn't do to get FEAR away from them. Would love an update for it. Still playable and all, but needs a cleaned up HUD for newer resolutions (there are some mods for this but would like something official)
 
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StereoVsn

Gold Member
rabs based on famous IPs shut down in less than 1 year. The only one printing money is Dragon Ball, because they are doing it the right way.

WB will fail and then some people will open threads on unsustainable prices and so on.
There is Harry Potter mobile game out and I don’t think it’s been particularly successful. It’s monetized to all hells though.
 
This company literally made the best selling game of 2023, breaking a decade+ long stranglehold of COD, and said, "nah, let's not do that anymore"

Really shows you that you don't need brains to become decision makers at these places.
CEOs and members of the board are all extremely high-IQ individuals who steer these companies to success. No normal employee would ever be able to do such a job and these leaders deserve the millions of dollars they earn every year without question.

/s


Emilia Clarke Laughing GIF
 

FeralEcho

Member
Now tell us the ROI of each. WB knows that information. I'm sure you do as well.
I'm sure the 500 players still left playing Suicide Squad after a month of release show the staggering success of their gaas initiative...

Or the dying Mortal Kombat 1 community....or the Multiversus shutdown after 1 year of release...

I'm sure if somebody paid me I can do more research of the entire industry in 10 mins than Zaslov can in 1 year,hell I already did more research than him in the paragraphs above but alas I'm not paid to do so nor do I fucking care 😂 WB can go up in flames for all I care, It's their own grave their digging,they are clearly too oblivious and can't get success if it bumps them in the head. Bring on the GAAS mass grave WB!!!
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Terrible article title from Gamespot. Not the best idea to just copy and paste that for the thread title here.

Read the article and it’s different. They aren’t pivoting away from console AAA. They’re focusing on tried and tested IP, live service games and mobile.

Y’all wanted them to stop making shit like Suicide Squad and do Batman. Seems like where they’re headed.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
Sounds like thy want to make a Minecraft/Hogwarts which actually doesn't sound to bad. Just not at the cost of single player adventures.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
Why there is only my way or the high way with these giant corporations.

Aren't you a GIANT Corporation.
Why not invest in both. 1-2 AAA Single player games a gen like Hogwarts Legacy and your dear to your heart F2P, Mobile games all around. That's reasonable.
 

Caffeine

Gold Member
Heres how you start Arkham Beyond, Superman Godfall, and Injustice 3 Dark Crisis.
 
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It's "volatile" when you don't give us what we want. How hard was it to just have Rocksteady or WB Montreal make a single player Batman Beyond videogame set in the Arkham Universe.
Instead of Terry it could have been Jason, from Arkham Knight to Batman Beyond.
 
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Jayjayhd34

Member
Been bit out loop did sucide squad bomb like predicted ? Still haven't touched after taking justice league seemed mudande taking down all those brainiacs
 

Belthazar

Member
That's just a shame... I was hoping for them to just refocus on good SP after Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad were a very clear message on what the audience wants out of their IP.

And a Hogwarts Legacy sequel had just so much potential if they could improve and iterate on the formula.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
He tried doing the same thing talking about Assassin's Creed Mirage. It sold very well on a smaller budget, but because it wasn't this mega successful cash cow it was a failure in his eyes. I pressed him on it and he never responded because he's always trolling when it comes to GAAS.

Probably one of the execs making these kinds of decisions. You never know who is posting on Gaf.
 
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