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It has been a great year of video game releases so far but there have been some big blights. While Skull and Bones is a bore, Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League is the biggest failure of the year. Following Kill The Justice League’s disappointment, the revealed Warner Bros. gaming plans for the future offer nothing but terrible news for fans of Harry Potter, DC Comics, and other iconic properties belonging to WBD.
Warner Bros. has admitted that Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League has disappointed. The 24-hour player count peak on SteamDB is now less than 500, and it’s still impossible to play the game offline. There is Season 2 happening soon to bring forth the arrival of the Joker, but any buzz around the game is completely dead.
While fans have taken issue with the game’s story, horrible dialogue, repetitive missions, boring gameplay, and lackluster open-world, the biggest contention has always been the live-service model. Warner Bros. has previously said they want to deliver more live-service experiences, and they’ve again reiterated this commitment for some of their most beloved IPs.
Warner Bros. gaming live-service plans
During a Morgan Stanley Speaking event on March 4th, Warner Bros. Discovery gaming boss, J.B. Perrette, talked about the company’s plans for the future. And, in what will disappoint many, these plans include more live-service titles as well as mobile and free-to-play games.
Per Gamespot‘s coverage of the Warner Bros. discussion, Perrette said the success of games like Hogwarts Legacy selling 22 million copies is great but never guaranteed because of the “volatile” market. He reportedly cited Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League as a disappointment, and so the plan moving forward is to reduce volatility.
As for how Warner Bros. will achieve this goal, the plan is to focus on core franchises and bring some of them to the mobile and free-to-play space, as well as ‘continuing to invest in live-service games that people play — and spend money on — over a long period of time’. This is designed to help WBD generate more consistent revenue.
Perrette said, ” Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we a develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?”.
In regard to specific IPs owned by WBD, Perrette cited Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC. While the plan and foundation have been outlined, Perrette said returns may not occur until 2025, 2026, and 2027.
There already is a new Harry Potter game in development called Quidditch Champions, and another DC Comics game in development we know of is Monolith Studios’ anticipated Wonder Woman. Per the FAQ, Quidditch Champions is a competitive multiplayer game that will require an online connection, meanwhile, Warner Bros. has promised Wonder Woman is not live-service.
While Wonder Woman not being live-service is good news, many will be dismayed to hear that Warner Bros. is cracking down on the live-service and monetization plans, especially following Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League. Hogwarts Legacy is perfect as a single-player experience and would potentially be much worse if it was live-service with an unfinished story padded over several seasons with purchasable cosmetics.
Lots of Mortal Kombat fans are already angry over the state of Mortal Kombat 1, meanwhile, the prospect of finally getting a Game of Thrones game and it being live-service is worrisome, to say the least. Perrette admitted to having no idea how the gaming landscape will evolve over time, and this is worrying because the live-service model is already overcrowded with many in development at other studios and cancellations already happening with masses of staff being laid off.
