Warner Bros. Games
Formerly | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (2004–2020) |
---|---|
Company type | Division |
Industry | Video games |
Founded | January 14, 2004 |
Headquarters | , US |
Key people | David Haddad (President) |
Products |
|
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment (2022–present)[1] | |
Subsidiaries |
|
Website | warnerbrosgames |
Warner Bros. Games (formerly Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) is an American
History
The foundation of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) under
In 2005, the first game that Monolith developed in conjunction with Warner Bros. was
In 2007, they implemented a five-year plan, the goal of which was to expand in the video game industry and included the acquisition of studios for internal development and the creation of a studio (WB Games) in the Seattle area that will run all the games published and developed by the company;[8] the first acquisition under this plan was Britain's TT Games that same year, for £100 million.[9]
In April 2008, they increased their stake to 35%, gaining distribution rights of all Eidos games in North America.[10] On December 15, 2008, shortly after SCi changed their name to Eidos plc, Warner acquired a total of 10 million shares of the company, raising its owned amount to 19.92%, after an agreement which prevented Time Warner from acquiring more shares was scrapped one month earlier.[11] On January 28, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter reported the deal also gave Warner the rights of the Tomb Raider film series,[12] previously owned by Paramount Pictures. On February 12, 2009, Warner Bros. backed Square Enix's acquisition offer worth £84.3 million for Eidos plc as majority stakeholder.[13][14]
Warner Bros. announced on February 4, 2009 it had purchased independent developer Snowblind Studios.[15] Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition serves to strengthen the publisher's internal development effort.
Also in 2009, Warner purchased most of the assets of American publisher Midway Games, operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, for $49 million. The assets purchased include Midway's studio in Chicago[16] and Surreal Software, resulting in the ownership to the rights to the Joust, Mortal Kombat, The Suffering, Spy Hunter and Wheelman series, as well as the library of the former Atari Games, which had previously been owned by Time Warner.[17] Midway had previously worked with Warner Bros. on several games, including Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Midway intended to hold an auction of its assets on June 29, 2009, but no other bids were placed. On July 10, the sale to Warner was completed for approximately US$49 million.[18] In the process, Warner became the owner of the Blitz: The League series. On July 28, 2009, Midway's Mortal Kombat team was rebranded WB Games Chicago[19] and, in 2010, was merged with Midway Games to form NetherRealm Studios.[20]
On January 13, 2010, it was announced that WBIE would produce and gain exclusive rights to Sesame Street video games, starting in fall 2010 with Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure and Cookie's Counting Carnival.[21][22] On February 23, 2010, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced it had acquired a majority stake in independent London-based developer Rocksteady Studios, an independent development studio based in London. Rocksteady and Warner had previously worked together in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, and have announced they will work in the future with more Warner Bros. licenses.[23]
On March 22, 2010, WBIE became the latest videogame company to open a studio in
On June 4, WBHEG and Turbine, inc. said that the massively multiplayer online title The Lord of the Rings Online was to become a free-to-play game that autumn.
On December 19, 2016, it was announced that Warner Bros. would no longer develop or publish The Lord of the Rings Online or Dungeons & Dragons Online; further development of the game would be handled by a newly formed studio, Standing Stone Games, with publishing to be transitioned over to Daybreak Game Company. The new studio would take the old development team from Turbine, leaving Turbine as a mobile-only developer.[34] As part of the deal, Daybreak did not pick up the rights to Asheron's Call, an original IP created by Turbine and thus owned by Warner Bros. as part of the 2010 acquisition. This resulted in the closure of Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings on January 31, 2017.[35]
On January 24, 2017, it was announced that recently-closed studio Avalanche Software and its Octane engine software were acquired by Warner Bros. from Disney Interactive Studios and the studio was reopened, with John Blackburn returning as its CEO. The studio's first title under Warner was a companion video game to the Disney-Pixar film Cars 3, titled Cars 3: Driven to Win, in partnership with Warner Bros., Disney, and Pixar.[36] On February 8, Playdemic was acquired through TT Games to make Lego games for mobile devices.[37] On July 11, 2018, it acquired Plexchat, a communications platform for mobile games, with its founder and staff joining WB Games San Francisco.[38][39]
In mid-2020, there had been industry rumors that AT&T, in order to raise funds, was looking to sell off parts of its divisions, with WBIE as one that had been rumored to be up for sale that would have raised $4 billion, according to
Instead, in May 2021, AT&T announced that it was splitting off WarnerMedia for about $43 billion, where it would be merged with
Subsidiaries and divisions
Publishing labels
- Portkey Games, which was founded in 2017 as the publishing label for games set within the Wizarding World franchise.
Studios
- Salt Lake City, Utah, founded in 1995, acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2005, closed along with the former parent company of the studio, Disney Interactive Studios, in May 2016. Acquired by WBIE in January 2017, which reopened the studio.[36]
- Monolith Productions in Kirkland, Washington, founded in 1994, acquired in 2004.
- NetherRealm Studios in Chicago, founded as Midway Games Chicago in 1988, acquired in 2009, and renamed in 2010.
- Rocksteady Studios in London, founded in 2004 and majority stake acquired in February 2010.
- TT Games in Knutsford, England, founded in 2005, acquired November 8, 2007.
- Traveller's Tales in Knutsford, England, founded in 1989, reorganized as the main development division of TT Games in 2005.
- TT Fusion in Wilmslow, England, founded in 2005 as Embryonic Studios, reorganized as a division of TT Games in 2007.
- TT Games Publishing, Bristol, England, founded in 2003 as Giant Interactive Entertainment, reorganized as a division of TT Games in 2005.
- TT Odyssey in Brighton, founded in January 2018 as TT Games Brighton, renamed in March 2018.[49][50]
- WB Games Montréal in Montreal, founded in 2010.[24]
- WB Games Boston in Needham, Massachusetts, founded in 1994, acquired in 2010.
- WB Games New York in Troy, New York, founded as Agora Games in 2005, acquired and renamed in 2017.[51]
- WB Games San Diego in San Diego; founded in 2019.[52]
- WB Games San Francisco in San Francisco, founded in 2013.[53]
Former studios
- Snowblind Studios in Kirkland, Washington, founded in 1997, acquired in 2009. Merged into Monolith Productions in 2012.
- Surreal Software in Kirkland, Washington, founded in 1995, acquired from Midway Games on July 27, 2009. Merged into Monolith Productions in 2010.
- Playdemic in Manchester, England, founded in 2010, acquired on February 8, 2017, sold to Electronic Arts in June 2021.[37][54]
List of video games
See also
- List of video games based on DC Comics
- List of Superman video games
- List of Batman video games
- Middle-earth in video games
- List of Looney Tunes video games
- List of Tom and Jerry video games
References
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