Warner Bros. Says It Will Transform Its Biggest Franchises Into Live Service Games

WB CEO David Zaslav wants to include always-on gameplay services with possible free-to-play extensions to drive monetisation.

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 9 November 2023 17:31 IST

Warner Bros. Says It Will Transform Its Biggest Franchises Into Live Service Games

Photo Credit: Rocksteady Studios

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was delayed to February 2024

Highlights

Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League got backlash for live service model
Back 4 Blood, Middle-earth: Shadow of War followed this model and failed
Mortal Kombat 1 sold 3 million copies; it also had microtransactions

Warner Bros. will be heavily veering into a live service model for its future games. During its latest Q3 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav confirmed that the company plans to transform its biggest video game franchises into long-term products, bolstered by regular content drops and heavy monetisation. In recent years, gamers have developed a distaste for such money-hungry practices, which often lock out content behind some form of paywall or a battle pass, instead of providing a complete game at launch. The idea is for players to keep playing WB-published games for months, instead of having AAA developers put out a new game every three to four years — which is the general cycle.

“Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels,” Zaslav said during the call. “We are currently under scale and see significant opportunity to generate greater post-purchase revenue.” It's an ironic statement considering the backlash Rocksteady Studios received when it debuted the gameplay trailer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, following which the game was delayed. While the studio claimed that it needed more time to ensure polish at launch, several reports suggested that it was being pushed into next year due to the inclusion of live-service elements. The developer was known for creating standalone, single-player Batman experiences through its Arkham series of games, but its latest title took a complete detour indicating heavy grinding for loot and gear, alongside purchasable cosmetic items.

What's worse is that while the entire main cast of the Suicide Squad game — Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark — have unique abilities, by default, they are all armed with firearms and seem to play the same. The gameplay loop includes hunting down mobs and bosses in repeated succession, taking a generic looter-shooter approach. In fact, Turtle Rock Studios' Back 4 Blood also followed a similar always-online games-as-a-service pattern but eventually ran out of content. Gotham Knights was always marketed as a single-player/ co-op story game, but take one look at its menu and run around town beating up thugs, and you'll immediately realise that the originally laid groundwork for progression was for a live-service game. It seems like developer WB Games Montréal noticed how poorly Square Enix's Avengers game fared and decided to change plans midway through. And let's not forget Middle-earth: Shadow of War, whose microtransactions were entirely removed following player feedback.

The aforementioned games were all published by Warner Bros. and therefore, should serve as a cautionary tale. However, CEO Zaslav is doubling down on these practices, despite noting how well Hogwarts Legacy performed from a sales and critical perspective — 700 million collective hours played till date. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat 1, which featured some aggressive microtransactions, sold 3 million copies. The executive appears to be relying on these success stories to chart a new course for its video games division, instead of looking at failures and understanding why it failed. Developers who create single-player games are not the same as those adept in multiplayer/ live-service experiences, and vice versa.

Earlier this year, WB launched the beta version of MultiVersus, a free-to-play crossover fighting game that brought in characters from various self-owned properties like Game of Thrones, Batman, Superman, and more. It also featured a battle pass for cosmetic items. The game's servers were shut down in June due to a diminishing player count. It is slated to launch sometime in 2024, but we'll have to wait and see if it materialises.

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+

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Mortal Kombat 1

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Breathtaking visuals
Humane changes to backstories
Smooth, responsive combat
Simple controls
Kameo assists are nicely executed
Brutal Fatalities

Bad
Story falls off in the second half
Lacklustre character development
Familiar gameplay
Invasions mode is a grind fest
Microtransactions

Read detailed Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Mortal Kombat 1 review

Genre Fighting

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

Modes Single-player

PEGI Rating 18+

More Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Games

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Further reading: warner bros, wb games, warner bros games live service, warner bros earnings call, wb qr 2023, suicide squad kill the justice league, hogwarts legacy, mortal kombat 1, back 4 blood, microtransactions, david zaslav