WB Puts Faith in Live Service Model Despite Suicide Squad's Failure, Hints Shift Away From Triple-A Games

J.B. Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery called the business of triple-A games "volatile."

Written by Manas Mitul | Updated: 6 March 2024 15:33 IST

WB Puts Faith in Live Service Model Despite Suicide Squad's Failure, Hints Shift Away From Triple-A Games

Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Rocksteady Studios

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League released February 2 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X

Highlights

Warner Bros. owns Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter and DC franchises
Suicide Squad follows a live service looter shooter model
Warner Bros.' Hogwarts Legacy was the highest selling game of 2023

Warner Bros. Games remains undeterred by the sub-par critical and commercial performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and plans to further lean into the live service model for its games going forward. J.B. Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, laid out the company's games strategy at a recent Morgan Stanley speaking event, reiterating the studio's intentions to invest more in 'games as a service' model, free-to-play games and mobile titles, and expressing doubts about the “volatile” business of bespoke triple-A games on consoles.

Speaking at Morgan Stanley's recent Technology Media and Telecom Conference, Perette reiterated Warner Bros.' commitment to transform its biggest franchises into live service games and suggested a strategic shift away from triple-A releases.

“The challenge we've had is that our business, historically, has been very triple-A console-based. That's a great business when you have a hit like Harry Potter (Hogwarts Legacy), it makes the year look amazing. And then, when you don't have a release, or, unfortunately, we also have disappointments — we just released Suicide Squad this quarter, which was not as strong — it just makes it very volatile,” the executive said.

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Perrette said that existing Warner Bros. franchises like Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and DC presented the studio with an opportunity to expand its offerings beyond the console space. “We think there's an opportunity to take those four franchises and develop a much more holistic approach, particularly around expanding into the mobile and multi-platform free to play space, which can give us a much better and more consistent set of revenue,” he said. The executive confirmed that WB Games will be launching several free-to-play games on mobile later this year.

Despite the massive success of last year's Hogwarts Legacy, WB Games seem to have less faith in triple-A console releases, owing to long development cycles and high development costs. A live service model, on the other hand, can offer continued engagement and generate revenue more consistently, the studio believes. Perette said that Warner Bros. will look to expand its existing games around the live service model and suggested that a Hogwarts Legacy sequel could perhaps offer the same. “Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live service, where people can continue to live and work and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis?” he said.

Warner Bros. had announced its strategy to veer into the live service space at an earnings call last year in November. WB CEO David Zaslav had said that the company planned to transform its biggest video game franchises into long-term products. “Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels,” Zaslav had said at the time.

Hogwarts Legacy Sold Over 22 Million Copies in 2023, Warner Bros. Claims

The studio also seems unfazed by the failure of its latest triple-A release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which follows a live service looter shooter model. The game, which released last month on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, reportedly fell short of Warner Bros. expectations. At the time of writing, the third-person shooter has 208 players online on Steam, with all-time peak player count of just over 13,000. In our own 6/10 review for the game, we said Kill the Justice League was severely held back by its live service model, with “baffling design choices, mundane mission structure, and unclear identity” working against the game's strengths.

The games as a service model also seems to have reached a point of saturation, with several titles competing to retain player engagement. While popular games like Fortnite and Call of Duty have done well, newer releases have struggled to adapt the model successfully. Heavily-monetised live service titles also seem to have lost favour among gamers themselves.

Warner Bros. Will Focus on More Live Service Games Going Forward

Hogwarts Legacy, a single-player console release with no microtransactions and live service elements, became the best-selling game last year, selling over 22 million copies.

What are the most exciting titles that gamers can look forward to in 2023? We discuss some of our favourites on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Fun traversal
Interesting story premise
Likeable cast of characters
Chaotic combat
Kevin Conroy's Batman

Bad
Repetitive missions
Grindy gameplay
Live service fatigue
Unimaginative boss fights
Unsatisfying story

Read detailed Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League review

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

Series Batman: Arkham

PEGI Rating 18+

More Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Games

Hogwarts Legacy

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Excellent combat
Engaging story
Likeable cast of characters
Detailed world design

Bad
Tries to stuff in a lot
Lack of a companion system
Tedious inventory management

Read detailed Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Hogwarts Legacy review

Genre RPG

Platform Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player

Series Wizarding World

PEGI Rating 12+

More Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Games

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Further reading: Warner Bros, Warner Bros Games, WB, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, Hogwarts Legacy, Suicide Squad

Manas Mitul

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In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about football and tennis, but maybe don’t bring up his video game backlog. More