Even without digging into the numbers, it’s pretty clear that Warner Bros. Discovery is in a tumultuous spot right now, with the company’s share prices plummeting nearly 70 percent since WarnerMedia and Discovery joined to form the company in 2022. And now, it looks as though the company is considering selling off a stake in its video games business to try and slow the freefall.
The report comes from the Financial Times (article requires registration to read), and suggests that the company is doing everything it possibly can to prevent having to break up the company, which would come with its own, significant challenges around operations, content rights and more.
Instead, WBD is apparently looking to offload some of its smaller assets in an effort to course-correct, one of which could include Polish broadcaster, TVN, with the other more relevant asset being a stake in its games publishing and development business.
While WB Games has publicly struggled in recent times with the catastrophic launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it’s also sitting on a lot of valuable IP and talent, with titles like Mortal Kombat and the Batman: Arkham series along with some successful licensed mobile content, and boasted the highest-selling video game of 2023 in many regions.
Back in April/May of 2022, reports had circulated that WBD was shopping its studios around to the likes of Microsoft, EA, Take-Two and even Sony, and before Discovery had even come into the picture it was widely reported that Microsoft, Take-Two, EA and others were interested in acquiring Warner Bros.’ gaming division in its entirety.
Given its recent proclivity towards big acquisitions, it’s hard not to see a company like Microsoft re-attempt a wholesale acquisition of WBD’s games business, or poach individual studios/properties given the possibility. Sony/PlayStation has been partnering up with WB Games launches in recent times, too, so it would be equally unsurprising to see them enter into an even deeper agreement.
That all said, times are tough in the sector right now with many publishers, especially the two just mentioned, taking extreme measures to cut costs including studio closures and layoffs, so any move to swoop in on WBD’s situation is going to be looked at very closely by the public and, presumably, folks like the FTC.
