It’s no mystery that the games industry has been in kind of a slump recently, with the closing down of several studios and underperformance of some expensively produced games.
The industry is still trying to get its footing, but WB Games is looking at a major shake-up with their president stepping down from his position.
WB Interactive President Stepping Down
According to Variety, the president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment David Haddad will be exiting his role in the WB Games division after 12 years. Haddad is still expected to stay on for three more months as the search for his replacement goes on, and he’ll also help oversee who is going to be taking over for him.
Haddad said about his exit: “I am so proud of everything we’ve accomplished together at Warner Bros. Games during my time with the company… It has been an absolute pleasure working on and building our iconic gaming franchises, and I will continue to be an enthusiastic supporter of this talented team’s future endeavours. I look forward to working on the next chapter of my career and will always be grateful for my time with Warner Bros. Games.”
While some fans are worried that WB would be thinking of selling their games division, it does look like they’re just looking for new leadership at this point. After all, the studio may not have had many hits recently, but it still managed to succeed with other titles like Hogwarts Legacy.
A Rocky Road
Admittedly, WB Games, like the rest of the industry, has been hit with some poorly performing titles over the past few years. Their Smash clone MultiVersus ended up pretty underwhelming for most players despite the wide potential for characters, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was also supposed to be a major hit, but it ended up fizzling out because of the pivot to live-service gaming. The bragging rights for developing the Arkham games only got Rocksteady so far.
Shift in Focus
For now, WB Games is said to be shifting the focus moving forward and toning it down from the AAA titles that admittedly cost more to make. Now, the studio is said to be focusing on smaller-scale games like the mobile title Game of Thrones Conquest.
There is also said to be a new shift in focus for WB’s more successful and established IPs like the DC Universe, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Mortal Kombat.
It’s not clear what else is in store for WB Games, but it is worth noting that their recent duds like MultiVersus and Suicide Squad have all relied heavily on established IP. Maybe they should consider the best way to go about adapting the WB IP for games.
A Current Low Point
For now, a lot of people are considering the game industry to be in a transition point, and several remedies have been suggested to appease the problem, from better management of funds to making games worth $100.
It may sound like a radical solution, but people are losing jobs and studios are closing down. Hopefully, somebody will come up with something within the year.