Players confused with WB Games’ publishing strategy: ‘Are they under sabotage?’

Warner Bros. is making strange moves with its gaming department. Its focus on IPs and game designs that failed financially in the last year or so has confused players, and many are speculating about what exactly is going on within WB Games.

These speculations arose following a March 18 article by Polygon aimed at deciphering WB Games’ recent strategic decisions. According to the article, WB Games is, for some reason, reviving games like MultiVersus and focusing on live-service content, even though Hogwarts Legacy, a single-player title, was the best-selling game of 2023. That same day, a Reddit thread appeared with hundreds of players weighing in on WB Games’ decisions and moves, with some asking: “Are they under sabotage?”

“WB as a whole seems to be totally losing its marbles,” the top reply said. The user also pointed out that WB Games seemingly makes games “for who they want their audience to be” rather than who they really are, and thus are risking losing their existing fanbase while they fail to attract a new one. Another user said it’s mind-boggling that Warner Bros. would opt for more live-service games, essentially doubling down on the concept after the astronomical failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The game barely gets a few hundred players on a good day and has lost over 90 percent of its player base in less than three weeks.

In contrast, last year, WB Games published Hogwarts Legacy, a single-player title set in the Harry Potter universe that went on to sell over 20 million copies in a year. “When does incompetence become sabotage?” one user wrote, with another adding that “WB’s been under some heavy sabotage in that case.”

As the Polygon article said: “The company has been in a weird state of uncertainty for a while,” and it’s unclear what the results of said uncertainty would be. We’ve previously covered how WB was seemingly hit hard by Suicide Squad’s failure, but since it’s still pushing for the same concept, it’s hard to determine their next step.